Holy Ground
by titieli
Summary: She lost it all and being immortal and alone it's not something you'd like to go through.There's no wonder why she's been a little bit bitter the last 1000 years. After a few misunderstandings, She moves in with an old friend: Carlisle Cullen. she's not one to get attached,but what about that beautiful boy that's been haunting her every dream since the day they met at a beach?
1. Chapter 1

Do you believe in magic? In supernatural things? Do you believe in vampires, werewolves, witches and wizards? No, right? Well what if I told you they're real? All of them?

I know it's hard to believe but it's real, I myself am one of them, and I'm telling you this because after more that 3000 years I've finally decided I want my story to be told; and what better way that telling it myself? But before I tell you anything… why don't we have a little class first?

So the werewolves are divided in two kinds: the one that turns into a wolf every full moon and the one that has the choice to turn whenever they want.

There are also three kinds of vampires, and they are divided by they power and strength, so the first kind is immortal, has fangs and everything but look like normal humans and they are really powerful; the second kind is hard as rock, they 'shine' on the sun, their fangs are always out and they are really cold; the third kind is the less powerful of all and they're really easy to kill which leads to extinction.

When it comes to witches there are also three kinds, the first one is immortal, have lots of powers, don't need to use a wand and they are generally part witch part something else; the second kind isn't immortal have normal powers and actually have to use wands ( which is really boring, if you ask me.), the third kind now is really delicate, they are normal humans but with a little magic, there are ones who can have a lot of magic but if they use it all it kills them, so…

Well, now that I've explained that to you, let me tell you who I am.

My name is Marie Antoinette Emmarette and I was born in 1894 BC on the ancient Egypt. I'm half veela, which gives me 'extreme beauty', and for reason I'll explain later I had to become an immortal at age 17. I'm really powerful, one of the most powerful witches that are out there, I can control the elements but my specialty is water and fire and I can also see the future and sometimes dead people. I have long wavy black hair—it almost reaches my hips- my hair is literally the color of night and my eyes are a piercing ice blue and my skin is as white as snow (but I'm not cold as snow) and my lips are as red as blood(I know it's a weird combination.).after going through a lot, in 1900 I stayed definitely on France but in 1920 I realized there was nothing left for me there, my sister hated me and made sure I knew that all the time. so I send a letter to dr. Carlisle Cullen asking him to let me go live with him, he of course accepted and I went to live with them. Carlisle and I met around 1694 and were really close so it was like living with family, but there was only one problem… I can't stand vampires, but he's proven to me that he and his family are different. I eventually got over myself and now they're like my family.

The cullens were a family of vampires, when I went to live with them they were Carlisle, esme, his wife, and Edward his 'son'; when the time passed Rosalie, Emmet, jasper and Alice came to live with us too.


	2. Chapter 2

A year ago we moved to forks, a little town at Washington State, if you ask me it was really boring but the Cullen's liked it so I had to suck it in. today it was a normal day at school although everyone was talking about the new girl, Isabella swan, I had her on 4 of my classes and she looked pretty normal, although there was something to her that made me curious. First of all she was really clumsy and it was like she wasn't supposed to be here; she was really pale, almost as white as I was which was ridiculous because she came from Arizona! And she used no make up at all which was even weirder; I still hadn't talk to her but I was planning on doing so between classes. Luckily for me, her locker was next to mine.

I saw Isabella and mike coming towards her locker, mike wouldn't stop talking, I rolled my eyes, he was so into her and Isabella looked fed up.

"thanks, mike but I think I'll be fine… but I'll look for you if I need your help." Isabella smiled and mike looked disappointed but left her alone.

I laughed." I'm so sorry for that! He does that to all the new girls, you had to see him last year, he wouldn't leave me alone!"

Isabella turn around startled, apparently she hadn't realized I was there. I took that time to properly look at her, she had brown eyes and hair, she wasn't tall but she wasn't short either and you could say she was thin. The moment I saw her I realized something was wrong: her taste for clothes. I wrinkled my nose at the sight but then remembered she was there so I stopped and instead put on a charming and sweet smile.

"oh! I'm sorry I didn't see you there." She said quietly and she flushed.

_Mmm someone's shy._

"That's okay, I'm Marie Antoinette, and you are Isabella right?" I said sticking out my hand for her to shake, usually I wouldn't do that but I needed to know who she was. Something was telling me she was going to be important on my future and I needed to know how.

"Bella." She corrected and shook my hand.

_I was standing in what looked like a ballet studio, but there was fire and glass everywhere. I turned around and gasped in the middle of the room was Bella in a pool of blood, her own blood, I ran towards her to find her gasping and crying, well at least she was alive. _

_Bella looked at me with pain in her eyes._

_"don't worry Bella, you'll be fine." I soothed._

_"Carlisle!" I yelled, he was the only one who could help her. _

_Suddenly I felt a presence beside me, I turned around to see Alice holding her breath and shushing Bella._

_"Carlisle, her blood!" Alice yelled, trying to keep control._

_Carlisle came to us and check on Bella and then Edward came, he looked devastated and I assure you that if he could cry he would've._

_"james bit her, there's nothing we can do." Carlisle said calmly. How he did that, I don't know._

_"no way." Edward growled._

_"it's going to happen Edward, I've seen it." Alice said._

I gasped as I let go of Bella's hand. That's the reason I felt curious about her. She was the one for Edward, I couldn't help but smile, Edward had never had a girlfriend and it was about time he found the right one…. I wonder if he knows.

" so… Bella? I'm heading to the cafeteria, you want to come?" I asked as normal as possible.

I was sure she had seen me spaced out while I was having the vision and even though I could control it and make it look like I was thinking, my reaction after it was always a give away.

"mmm no, I'm going to wait for Jessica… maybe other time." She said and smile.

"sure." I said as I headed off, I knew for a fact there wasn't going to be a next time. The Cullen's stayed away from the humans, that was a fact and if they stayed away so did I. but maybe Bella and I can be locker friends, if that even makes sense.

I entered the cafeteria and looked around to find Emmet, Rose, Alice, jasper and Edward sitting on the same table they sit all the time; I started to sing in my mind so Edward wouldn't read my thoughts and see the vision.

"Hi guys." I smiled.

And, as always Alice beamed at me. "Marie! How were classes? Did you meet the new girl?"

Something in Alice's eyes sparked and I realized what she was doing, she had had a vision too.

"yep, I did. I have her in four of my classes and she has the locker next to mine. I was talking to her _right now_." I told her, making emphasis on right now.

Edward growled and I turned around to face him.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, clearly confused. It wasn't like him to do that.

Edward glared at me and turned around; speechless I turned around and look questioningly at Alice.

"He also met the new girl; apparently he can't read her thoughts…" Alice hesitated and then leaned forward and I did the same, then she whispered low enough for only me to hear." He almost killed her."

I had chosen that exact moment to take a sip of my water, causing me to choke on it when Alice told me Edward wanted to kill Bella.

"What? Why? That can't happen, they…" I drifted realizing I couldn't say it at loud.

But thankfully Alice caught on quickly.

" I know! But apparently her scent is so strong that makes him super thirsty and…"

"Could you two please stop talking about me like if I wasn't here?" Edward cut in.

"Sorry" Alice said at the same time I murmured a "pardon" I couldn't help it. Even though I hadn't been to France it 30 years, I had lived in the supernatural dimension for two centuries and their first language was French.

It hadn't passed 5 minutes after Edward little outburst when Alice squealed happily.

"Oh, my god! Oh, my god!" she squealed.

"What?" I laughed.

"They're talking about us!"

I rolled my eyes. This was so Alice. It didn't matter where we were she'd get excited when she caught someone talking about us.

"Alice, they are always talking about us." Emmet said and I laughed, it was like he had read my mind.

"no, no! I mean Bella is!" She squealed again.

All eyes turn to Bella's table to find her looking right at us, I smiled and waved to her she smiled and waved back but then her eyes turn to my right, they turn to Edward and she blush deeply and turned around on her table.

Suddenly I had the craziest idea ever, and I was sure there was no way in hell Edward would let me but…

"If you know I'm not letting you then why are you thinking about it?" Edward interrupted my track of thought by answering them out loud.

I grunted. _Stay out of my mind, will you?_

"no." he answered again.

I ignored him and got up. I started walking towards Bella's table when Alice called out after me.

"Tell her nice things about me!"

I laughed.

"Hey! Bella! Do you mind if I join in? "

Jessica, Angela, mike and Ben looked up at me in disbelieve; I didn't blame them, the Cullen's never talk to anyone but themselves and I included myself in that sentence.

"Of course you can! Come, sit!" Jessica spoke up so fast that I wasn't sure if the rest of them had heard her properly.

I did as she told me and smiled brightly at them, from where I was sitting I could see my "brothers and sisters" and they were all looking at me.

"Marie Antoinette, these are..." Bella started but I cut her in.

"Oh no! Wait, I know." I said." You are Angela, the school newspaper's photographer, right?" she nodded and I continue." You are Jessica and you are mike." I pointed at Jessica, obnoxious Jessica, and then at mike who was looking at Bella like a lost puppy," and you are Ben."

They looked surprised I knew but common they were in my year! Of course I knew who they were; in fact I knew every single person in this school.

"So, I was about to tell Bella about your family but you're here so…" obnoxious Jessica said, and I rolled my eyes.

_Should I tell them personal stuff? Like your likes and dislikes?_

I looked over at Edward to see him furrowing. I furrowed as well, why wasn't he answering?! Right, the only moment I want him to and he finally listens when I tell him not to read me.

_EDWARDDDDD._

He looked up startled by my scream and locked his eyes with mine, he raised an eyebrow questioningly.

_Should I tell them personal stuff? Your likes and dislikes?_

He said no with his head and I rolled my eyes. If he only knew.

"I'll tell you anything you want to know."

Angela smiled at me and Jessica looked like she wanted to take a camera and shoot this moment.

"Tell me who is who." Bella demanded and I looked at her surprised but cover it.

"Okay, the little one that looks like a pixie and has short black hair is Alice." I smiled at Alice and she smiled back, she was the only one I truly considered my sister, I loved her and she loved me, too. we were the best of friends." She is the best, my favorite sister, a little crazy though." Alice furrowed and I laughed." don't tell her I said so." I said knowing she already knew.

" The other girl, with white blonde hair and black eyes is Rosalie, she is cunning and selfish." Rosalie scoffed at me and rolled her eyes. "but trustworthy and has a great taste on clothes; she is jasper's twin." I finished, when Rosalie heard what I said about her being trustworthy she smiled a little and when I mention jasper he locked his eyes with mine.

"Jasper is the one with curly dirty blonde hair; he's Alice's boy and a great guy…"

I was about to continue when obnoxious Jessica cut in." he's a great guy? Really? He looks so cold and bitter.

_Are you kidding me?! All of them look cold and bitter! He's __**my**__ brother, Not yours! So what do you know?!_

Jasper and Edward tensed, jasper could feel what I was feeling (a combination of hatred, anger and exasperation.) and Edward had read my thoughts.

I kept glaring at Jessica and outside the light raining changed into a big storm. I was doing it again, I was changing the weather. I breathed in and out and decided to completely ignore Jessica's comment.

"anyway… as I was saying jasper is a great guy, his fun to be with and tells the best horror stories you could ever imagine, they scare the hell out of me, and I'm not easy to scare." Jasper smiled at me and I did the same, he and Alice were my favorites; I spend all my time with them. "Now Emmet, he's the one with curly black hair and dark brown eyes, he's the clown of the family and he's with rose."I stated then remain silence.

The five of them were looking at me expectantly and I hesitated, my eyes went from Bella to Edward to Alice, and while I did that, I was trying my hardest not to think of the prophecy; I could tell Alice was doing the same.

" and what about the other?" Bella asked in what she thought was curiosity, but I saw right through her, she was interested in Edward, whether it was because he had behaved strangely around her and she had notice or because she liked him , I don't know.

I raised my eyebrow at her and she blushed." That's Edward, I believe his your science partner; am I right?" this caused the girl to blush even more and I giggled. " he's okay, he's calm and has a good taste, loves music, plays the piano… a complete Casanova." I saw Edward furrowed at the same time Bella did." I'm kidding; he hasn't had a girlfriend in a long time… I'm starting to worry."

That, thankfully, made everyone laugh and the bell rang, I sighed .

_Edward, I'm leaving with Emmet and rose…. Are you coming? I'd like to speak with you._

He slowly nodded and I said goodbye to everyone and got up.

"Wait… are you going to seat with us tomorrow?" obnoxious Jessica asked.

Angela elbowed her on the ribs and looked at me. "What jess here is trying to say is… are you going to be our friend? Because that would make you the first Cullen to ever do that…"

I smiled, I liked Angela, and she was caring and friendly.

"It'd be great if you did… you know get away from your family." Mike joked and I laughed.

"I'd love to, but I'm not sure… we'll see okay? Bye, guys" I said and went to my 'family'.

"Marie! I love you too!" Alice said hugging me. "You are definitely my favorite sister."

Jasper laughed and put an arm around Alice." Next time, be more careful with your feelings, a little bit more and you would've created a tornado outside." I smiled and rolled my eyes.

Alice and jasper excused themselves to go to their last class and I was left alone with Emmet, Rosalie and Edward.

"I am cunning and selfish?!" Rosalie growled at me.

"Oh come 'on! Rose, that's what you look like! Besides you do have to admit you're a little bit selfish."

She opened her mouth to answer and then closed it, she did that two or three times, to finally come out with a "whatever", after that she went to the jeep and waited for us.

"Well, that went well…" Emmet said.

Emmet followed her right after she left. I was bewildered, never in the 90 years I've spent with the Cullen's have I been able to shut Rosalie up; maybe she was finally growing up.

"Don't be bitter." Edward scolded me from behind.

I turned around and looked at him straight in the eyes, black eyes. I frowned. His eyes were supposed to be gold not black.

"What do you think of Bella?" I asked.

He looked taken aback, maybe he thought I wasn't going to ask him; I myself wasn't sure, but I needed to know. If he had tried to kill her it meant that my vision might've been wrong, but that's impossible.

"I'm curious about her… I can't read her mind and I don't understand why." He replied.

My eyes widened. _That was unexpected._ He usually knew everything and that was very annoying. He smile and I, once again, frowned.

"If for you is unexpected, imagine my shock." He said quietly.

I took a step forward and poke him hard on the chest; he took a step back surprised.

"Arrête de faite cela!" I yelled which owned me a few glares from the few students that were on the hall.

Edward frowned and took a step forward. "Sorry? I didn't quite catch that."

I was about to answer when I realized people had stop to watch, this was the only time the Cullen's actually showed emotion. They must think I'm crazy. I took Edwards wrist and started walking towards the woods, people never went there, and when I was close enough to it I stopped.

"I said: stop doing that. It creeps me, I've never like it and you know that!" I exclaimed.

"Thanks for the translation, I might speak many languages but French is not one of them." He was amused, I couldn't believe it. I was super pissed and he was mocking me!

"You know what? Forget I said anything. I'm going home." Right after I said that I stretched out my hands, put them together again and disappeared to home.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been around two days after Bella's arrival and I had spent every lunch with them since. Angela, Bella and Ben were my friends, while Jessica and mike were simply extras; I did not like them at all, why? Well for starters they are both really annoying and mike wanted to be with Bella which wouldn't allow my 'brother' to be with her and that really bothered me.

The cullens weren't happy about me being friends with humans and specially being friends with Bella, they knew the effect the girl had in Edward and they were worried about that, all of them disagreed on my friendship with them, except Alice; she knew who Bella was and she wanted to be her friend but Edward wouldn't let her, he said that with me it was enough.

It was early in the morning and we were all in the middle of the parking lot waiting for the bell to ring; I was nervous, I kept having this feeling on my chest that told me something would happen but I didn't know what and it didn't matter how hard I tried there was no way I'd had a vision. Every time I'd started to see something it would vanish, it almost was like God didn't want me to know. And then it happened, Alice gasped at the same time an awful metal noise filled the air and Edward vanished from beside me. It took me about two seconds to realize why he had, not too far from us Bella was looking at her truck and not so far from her was a blue SUV struggling with the cold ice on the ground, the driver had obviously lost control of the car and it was going towards Bella as fast as the cold ice allowed it, which was really fast; you could see the shock and horror on everyone faces as they saw, for them, Bella's killer; if I hadn't known better I would actually believe that the big SUV was indeed Bella's killer because it was approaching her faster than before and Bella simply stood there in pure shock; just when the SUV was going to hit her Edward appeared between the car and Bella so the car would hit him, he moved Bella out of the way.

Alice and I let out a relief breath; none of us wanted anything bad to happen to Bella, the moment the SUV stopped everyone started to scream Bella's name; I could see some of the guys calling 911 so I took out my phone and dialed Carlisle.

"Marie? What's wrong? You know I don't like to be disturbed at the hospital." I heard Carlisle say from the other side of the line.

Of course he didn't want to be disturbed and I understood I could be annoying sometimes but I never bothered at the hospital.

"I know, but this is_ important_." I paused and waited for the words to sink in Carlisle, I had emphasized the word important so he could actually understand it was important.

"What's happened?" he asked.

"there was an accident at school, some guy lost control of his car and almost ran over Bella… but Edward saw it coming so he threw himself in the middle and saved Bella but I think she hit her head, I don't think there's blood but Edward is going to freak out, I'm certain of that. Could you check on her? When she gets to the E.R.?" I took a deep breath after that. I had said it very lowly so no one would hear and really fast so in case someone _had_ heard, they wouldn't understand. "I think it's better if you do it, in case she's perfect and they start to suspect."

There was a pause on the other line and I started to wonder if Carlisle had let me hanging, which I highly doubted, but then there were some noises on the other side and Carlisle answered me.

"I will, when are they bringing her here?" that got me thinking. I never thought of Bella to be the kind of girl to go in an ambulance if it wasn't needed, but I was obviously wrong because when I turned around I could see her getting into the ambulance next to the other boy who was actually bleeding, but just a bit nothing to worry about. I turned around looking for Edward and I found him, he was looking at Bella then his gaze turn to me and then he had disappeared, again.

"They should be there in about ten minutes. Carlisle? I gotta go, Alice needs me." I said and hang up as I walked towards Alice who was making signs at me. I came closer to her and she grew impatience because she run at me and grabbed my hand.

"You have to get us both out of here, now! So do one of your witchy things and make us appear at the hospital, Bella suspects something." Alice whispered and I did as I was told. Soon enough we were at Carlisle office.

"I don't like it Carlisle! Marie Antoinette is already at risk by being friends with them but Edward crossed the line!" Rosalie whispered yelled at Carlisle. They were out of the office and Alice was about to step into the conversation but I stopped her, I wanted to know more.

"What do you want me do to Rosalie? He's my son I can't punish him for having humans feelings." Carlisle said calmly to Rosalie. I frowned, what was that about humans' feelings?

"What did he mean by that?" I mouthed to Alice and she shrugged.

"We'll figure it out later." She mouthed back.

"He's going to get us all killed! I don't want to move out just yet!" Rosalie whined.

"We'll discus this later with everyone, now goodbye Rosalie." Carlisle was about to enter his office, where Alice and I were (how convenient) and was going to catch us eavesdropping in his conversation with rose.

_Not good._

I looked at Alice to see her frowning, she was thinking a way out and I had it, I grabbed her wrist, turned around and we both disappeared with a loud _crack!_ At the same time Carlisle entered the room.

I had been around 5 hours since Alice and I almost got caught by Carlisle and it had been the longest five hours of the 3904 years I had lived; everyone knew what had happened at school and we also knew Carlisle would want to talk about it.

So here we were waiting for Carlisle and Edward to get home and the tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife; I could actually see it in the air, waiting for one of us to break it, none of us did.

"Carlisle I don't understand why you're doing this." I heard Edward say from the porch. So they were home.

I saw Carlisle enter the dining room, where the family meetings were done, and Edward close behind, fuming. Carlisle sat on the corner of the table and Edward sat on his left, esme was sitting on his right, Emmet was next to esme and rose was next to him, Alice was next to Edward and jasper was next to her, as for me I was at the corner of the table, right in front of Carlisle and between jasper and rose.

"We all know why we are here…" Carlisle began but he was cut out by none other that Rosalie.

"To talk about the recklessness of your 'oh so dear' son."

I hissed at her—I have to thank the half of me that was a veela for that- and everyone looked at me with surprise but how dare she? She just couldn't interrupt Carlisle and then talk with sarcasm. I hated her sometimes.

Edward cleared his throat and then started talking. "Anyway, I apologize for the risk I put all you guys at."

That made me roll my eyes, I mean seriously? He finally does something good other than just keep our façade and he apologizes for it?

"What are we going to do about Bella?" Emmet asked without concern. He obviously didn't care.

"I say we let Marie Antoinette talk her out of her doubts, you know? Tell her that she hit her head too hard or something." Esme said quietly.

Everyone turned to look at me and I locked eyes with Carlisle, my eyes drifted slowly towards Edward and then back to Carlisle; what could I do? If I did as they ask then he wouldn't be happy and I couldn't be the reason why he wasn't happy.

"No." I said firmly.

_Tell her, Edward. She won't freak out I promise._

"There's no way I'm doing that, Antoinette." He stated.

"Why not? It's bound to happened, I've seen it" Alice said, stepping into the conversation for the first time.

I smiled at her and she smiled back. The hell it was going to happen and Alice, Bella and I would be the best of friends.

"We are not killing her, Rosalie." Edward growled.

I rolled my eyes; he's unpredictable and really confusing. One minute he doesn't want to tell her and now he doesn't want to kill her.

_Don't go after a fight Edward. You know how is going to end._

He looked over at me and relaxed a bit, he knew I was right. If there was a fight he would loose because esme wouldn't fight, Emmet would fight on Rosalie's side, so would jasper—he wouldn't let anything happen to Alice and Bella was a risk—I would protect Bella because I'm her friend but I would never hurt any of them, Alice would do the same as I and Carlisle, actually I'm not really sure whose side Carlisle would be in.

"Carlisle, May I decide? "I spoke with pure respect in my voice, I knew he was the leaderof the family and I still needed his permission to do something like this.

He considered me for a minute or so before nodding reassuringly.

"We will not kill Bella, Rosalie."—rose opened her mouth to say something but I cut her in—"let me finish. I understand where you're coming from, you're worried and I get that but I do not believe killing her is going to solve anything and it is not the right thing either. She needs to know and she's going to know one way or another; Edward has to tell her but if you don't want then fine don't tell her but don't deny anything either. If she discovers the truth by her own and she asks you then you say yes, if she asks you if you read minds you say yes. Are we clear?" I stated-demanded from the people around the room, I had used the tone. The one I only used when I was in Egypt and was the daughter of the pharaoh, the owner of everything.

Everyone was looking at me with impressed looks on their faces; it was like they were surprised for my tone but at the same time I could see the pride in Carlisle, esme and Alice's faces. None of them said anything they simply stared so I spoke again, authority clear in my voice.

"Are we clear?"

They all nodded and muttered "yes" under their breath but I still heard them, so I got up smiled down at them all.

"Okay, so if you don't mind I'm going to sleep." I turned around and left to my room with a smirk on my face. It had been too easy.


	4. Chapter 4

**chapter 4: La Push, baby, it's La Push.**

I was right, Bella did suspect something but she either thought it was impossible or she was scared because she didn't say a thing to anyone. So today was Friday and it was lunch time and like every lunch time, since Bella had arrived, I went to sit with the guys instead of sitting with my family.

"Marie! La push! So what do you say?" Eric told me and I frowned.

La push? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Everyone laughed at my expression and poked Eric playfully.

"Do I even want to know what you're talking about?" I wondered out loud.

That made everyone laugh even harder and Eric frowned, I giggled.

"What he means is we're going down to the la push reservation. We're going surfing. Do you want to come? " Jessica asked.

La push. Why did that name ring a bell to my head? I had heard it before but where? And they were going surfing, were the crazy or something? This weekend was going to be one of the coldest weekends ever, they were going to freeze to death or die from hypothermia.

"Isn't the water too cold?" I asked and they shrugged.

"You don't have to get in it if you don't want to. Come with us, please? We ask Bella and she already agreed." Angela told me.

I considered the idea, go to la push or stay bored at home? The first one sounded way better and Bella was going so I could ask her if she suspected something, but what if Edward doesn't let me go? I think la push was that beach were the cullens couldn't go because of thetreaty which means they wouldn't let me go but I wasn't a Cullen, I mean yes I lived with them but I didn't have their last name and I am not a vampire. So I must be able to go.

"La push, baby! It's la push." Eric said with, what I guess, was a sexy smirk and a sexy voice.

I laughed. "I'll go if you stop saying that."

"Ohhh burn!" mike said pushing Eric slightly.

That Saturday morning I went to pick up Bella and we went to first beach, down at the reservation. The music was pretty loud because I didn't want to talk, why? Because I was really mad. Carlisle didn't approve of my going down to the reservation, but couldn't see how that would brake the treaty seeing as though I wasn't a vampire, so if we saw any Quileutes all I had to do was say I was Marie Antoinette Emmarette which in part wasn't a lie because that was my real identity; Edward, however, wasn't to happy with my decision and when I told him I really didn't give a fuck about what he thought was right and what wasn't he practically threw himself at me which got him flying to the other side of the room with a flick of my wrist.

It was only fifteen miles to La Push from Forks, with gorgeous, dense green forests edging the road most of the way and the wide Quillayute River snaking beneath it twice. So here I was singing along to someone like you by Adele while Bella looked out the window, staring at the beauty of our surroundings, without saying a word.

"Never mind I'll find someone like you, I wish nothing but the best to you." I swiftly sang, I knew all the lyrics.

"You really are a good singer, do you know that?" Bella asked and I smiled.

_If you only knew._

"Yeah, I know. Edward tells me all the time." I said as we arrived the parking lot near the beach, Jessica, Eric and mike were getting ready to go surfing, even though I was sure we were like at 10 degrees and Jessica was sitting inside the van with a big blanket around her.

"Hello guys." I said while getting out of the car. Bella got out of the car and went to sit by Angela.

"Hey, hey! Look who actually came! The hottest Cullen!" mike said with a wink my way and that won me ascow from Jessica.

"I told you I'd come mike." I wink at the same time I gave him a mischievous smirk; I didn't fancy mike but I love games and mike looked like a really good toy.

_Stop it right there! Remember you were played and you promised you wouldn't play with nice people anymore!_

That was true, but I couldn't help it. It was in my nature! Veelas were supposed to play with guys and then use them for their dirty work and normally to suck their souls out. Right, that doesn't sound good…. the thing is that I was really good at seducing and I used that to get what I wanted. I turned around to look at beach and what I saw took my breath away. In front of me was a mass of dark gray-blued ocean, Islands rose out of the steel harbor waters with sheer cliff sides, reaching to uneven summits, and crowned with austere, soaring firs. It was really beautiful.

"bella!" someone shouted from behind me and I turned around. Coming towards us were three tan-skin, black-haired guys; the three of them had long hair, something very common in the people who lived here at the reservation.

_Fuck! _These guys were Quileutes and here I was a supposed Cullen in their territory. Isn't that my luck?

Bella looked up surprised at the fact someone had called her and then she smiled, as if finally realizing who had called her name. "Jacob!" she said and smiled.

I scrutinized this Jacob boy very closely and he wasn't that bad. He definitely was taller than me but not much, he had brown eyes but it was a weird shade of brown and he had pearly- white teeth that contrasted with his color of skin, the only problem was his long hair.

"What are you doing here? Are you stalking me or something?" she joked and he laughed sitting next to her.

"It's my reservation remember?" He told her as he laughed slightly.

Everyone was looking at him with a weird expression and I could see the awkward silence forming itself around us all.

"You know each other? That's great, I mean you can make Bella some company." Angela said, trying to break the silence.

"Yeah, her date bailed her." Jessica said in a singing tone. That brought the attention of the boys.

"What date?" Eric said, suddenly very interested in the conversation going between us and the guys from the reservation.

"She invited Edward Cullen." Jessica giggled and Bella's eyes widened, I couldn't help but giggle at Bella's face.

"The cullens don't come here." One of the guys that had come with Jacob said and I froze.

Everyone's eyes darted to me; I knew everyone wanted to say something like 'but hey! She's a Cullen' or ' what about you, Marie Antoinette?' but I was literally praying they wouldn't do that because this guys didn't look like the type to forget I was in a way or another breaking the treaty and besides, I was next to them. Wait a minute! I was next to them! I could cast a spell and make them go away and everything would be ok! I started muttering some words and as always it worked.

"Anyway, are we going surfing or not?" mike said and started walking to the beach; Eric and Jessica close behind him.

_Ok, now get rid of the reservation guys. _I muttered the same words I did before and the two guys excused themselves, leaving me with Bella and Jacob.

I cleared my throat and Bella looked at me. "Oh, god! Sorry, Jacob this is Marie Antoinette. Marie this is Jacob black."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and smiled. I was really thankful Bella hadn't said my last name, maybe she thought it was weird the way those guys said 'the cullens don't come here'.

Jacob turned to look at me and held out his hand." Hey, nice to meet you." He smiled.

"Nice to meet you too." I said, speaking for the first time since they had arrived, as I took his hand.

_"Look, I know I hurt you! It kills me, it's killing me! But Jake, please." I cried._

_I was soaked and so was he but the difference was that I was shaking from the cold and he was completely fine._

_"No! Forget it, okay? It's not you." He said. _

_"'It's not you; it's me 'really?" I frown._

_"It is me. I'm not…. Good. I used to be, a good kid but not anymore." He said but I think he was trying to convince himself more than trying to convince me._

Suddenly I was back at the beach, still shaking Jacob's hand, I let it go and furrowed; that had been really weird, I hadn't had a vision that directly concern me in a long time.

"Why don't we take a walk? I can show you the beach." He offered and I smiled again.

_Maybe I'd change my toy, forget about mike._

"Sure." Bella agreed smiling down at Jacob.

We had been walking around the beach for about fifteen minutes, doing small talk.

"So how are your sisters, Rachel and Rebecca?" Bella asked, like if she was actually interested.

"Rachel got a scholarship and Rebecca got married; now she lives in Hawaii." Jacob shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.

"Married? Wow." Bella said batting her eyelashes.

Woah! What? She was flirting with the guy? I thought she was into my brother.

"Yeah, so how do you like the truck?" he asked.

"It runs great! I love it." She said with flirting eyes again.

"But it's really slow. –Do you know who the owner of that BMW is?" he asked as nonchalant as he could. But I knew better.

I laughed an angelic laugh and took his arm. "Actually, Jacob, that's mine."

He stopped walking and looked at me completely surprised. "That beauty is yours?" he asked.

"If you think that's a beauty you should see my sister's." I gave him a breath-taking smile with a mischievous glint on my eyes I knew he could see.

I waited to see my effect on him, the poor guy was starstruck and from the corner of my eyes I could see Bella glaring at me, I frowned. What was wrong with this girl?

"Jacob, you are what? 18?" Bella asked.

He turned his attention towards her and smiled but that didn't stop me from holding his arm, I looked at Bella with a glare that said. _Step back, I saw him first._

"No, actually I just turn seventeen." He said with a grin. Someone was excited about that.

"Tell me Jacob; do you come up to forks much?" I asked arching my eyebrows.

"not too much But when I get my car finished I can go up as much as I want" he amended.

"Now, that would be great." I beamed at him and he smiled, flattered. _Oh! This is way too easy._

"What did that guy mean when he said the Cullens don't come here?" Bella asked, now truly interested.

Our pace slowed down and I felt my heart beat quicken.

"You noticed, uh? I'm not really supposed to tell anyone about that." He frowned. You can't say anything, fine then don't.

"I'm not going to tell anyone, I'm just curious because Marie here is a Cullen and she didn't have a problem coming here." Bella said like it was nothing, my stomach dropped and I froze on the spot, I could feel Jacob tense under my touch so I slowly let go of his arm.

"Yeah, about that… I am not exactly a Cullen; my real name is Marie Antoinette Emmarette. My parents died in a fire three years ago and I had no one left so Carlisle and esme took me in, they're my legal guardians but I never took their last name as mine –and I'm not planning on doing that anytime soon." I stated and looked at Jacob practically begging him to believe me, the last thing I wanted was this kid running around the beach screaming 'vampire! They broke the treaty!'

"I didn't know, sorry I shouldn't have brought it up." Bella said with regret and I smiled.

"It's okay. I'm really curious though. Why can't the cullens come here?"

Bella seemed to regain her fake interest on the topic, Jacob, however, was looking at me with a weird look. Was that pity? Or was it sympathy? Maybe he had lost someone as well.

"Do you like horror stories?" he asked us ominously with his husky voice.

"I love them." Bella said with fake excitement.

Seriously. What's up with this girl? The kid was already going to tell us the story, if she kept doing that the guy would end up being the biggest jerk on the world because he had 2 juniors 'drooling' over him. Not that we were.

Jacob strolled to a nearby driftwood tree that had its roots sticking out like the attenuated legs of a huge, pale spider. He perched lightly on one of the twisted roots while Bella sat beneath him on the body of the tree and I sat next to him. He stared down at the rocks, a smile hovering around the edges of his broad lips. I could see he was going to try to make this good.

"Do you know any of the Quileute's stories?" He began.

"Not really." I admitted and Bella simply shook her head.

"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood — supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark." He smiled, it was obvious that he didn't believe in this histories.

"Another legend claims that we descended from wolves — and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them. Then there are the stories about the cold ones." His voice dropped alittle lower.

_ Here we go._

"The cold ones?" Bella asked, apparently interested now. So she did suspect something about my family.

"According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." He said with a roll of his eyes.

"Your great-grandfather?" I encouraged.

"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf—well, not the wolf, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You would call them werewolves." He explained further.

"Werewolves have enemies?" Bella wondered out loud.

"Only one."

I stared at him earnestly, coming to the realization that I might have a heart attack anytime soon, he was telling her everything!

"So you see," Jacob continued, "the cold ones are traditionally our enemies. But this pack that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did. They weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale-faces." He winked at me.

I swear I was hyperventilating by then and I was sure you could see the horror on my face, Jacob smirked knowingly, he had realize I had caught on the story faster than Bella who still didn't understand what he meant by 'the way they hunt' oh but I did! I really did!

"There's always a risk for humans to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this clan was. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist." He continued with an edge of menace into his tone.

"What do you mean, 'civilized'?" I asked playing dumb.

"They claimed that they didn't hunt humans. They supposedly were, somehow, able to prey on animals instead."

My eyes widened. Holy crap! I was dead, dead! And this was really not good!

"So how does it fit in with the Cullens? Are they like the cold ones your great-grandfather met?" Bella asked.

"No." He paused dramatically. "They are the same ones."

My eyes widened even more, if that was possible, and I was almost sure they could hear my heartbeat. Fear was clear in my face and it turned to horror when I realized Bella had the same expression on her face. She had believed him. Jacob on the other hand looked satisfied with his story and the fear it was causing on us, he smiled and continued.

"There are more of them now, a new female and a new male, but the rest are the same. In my great-grandfather's time they already knew of the leader, Carlisle. He'd been here and gone before your people had even arrived." He was fighting a smile.

"And what are they?" Bella finally asked. "What are the cold ones?" He smiled darkly.

"Blood drinkers," he replied in a chilling voice. "Your people call them vampires."

I stared out at the rough surf after he answered, not sure what my face was exposing anymore.

"You have goose bumps," he laughed delightedly at me.

"You're a good storyteller," I complimented him, still staring into the waves." And I scare easily" I smiled looking at him. I didn't want him to be my toy anymore, he knew way too much.

"Pretty crazy stuff, though, isn't it? No wonder my dad doesn't want us to talk about it to anyone."

"Don't worry, I won't give you away." I promised.

"I guess I just violated the treaty," he laughed and I tagged along, even though mine sounded kind of forced.

"You have no idea." I muttered low enough for them not to hear.

"So do you think we're a bunch of superstitious natives or what?" he asked in a playful tone, but with a hint of worry. Bella, I realized, still hadn't looked away from the ocean.

"Of course not! But it's not true; I mean I live with these people, for god's sake!"I whined.

Bella turned around and looked me straight in the eyes, with an eyebrow raised. "Of course it's not true, you silly!" she joked but her eyes were serious.

I could here the rocks from the shore clattering against each others, warning us that someone was coming. The tree of us turned around to see mike and Jessica walking towards us.

"Marie, there you are!" mike called waving his hand over his head.

"I'm going to get going…" Bella started and walked to where mike and Jessica were.

"Is that your boyfriend?" Jacob asked, alerted by the obvious tone of jealousy in mike's voice.

"No, definitely not." I whispered at him. "I'm 100% single." I added winking at him. He smiled elated by my flirting which was way more better that Bella's.

"So when I finish the rabbit…"

"You should definitely go up to forks, we can hang out sometime." I smiled as I got up and turned away, he did the same and we both started to walk towards Bella, mike and Jessica, Jacob slightly behind.

"Bella told me Jacob was telling you horror stories?" mike asked with an edge to his tone.

"Yeah, they were great. Look I've got goose bumps." I said showing them my arms while smiling warmly at Jacob and he smirked back. He was fun to be with, it was really easy; maybe I'd keep him as a friend.

"We're packing up, it looks like it's going to rain." Jessica added. I looked up to see the sky getting gray; it was definitely going to rain in about five minutes or so.

"Well, Jacob thanks for everything, really it was fun." I told him sincerely.

Bella turned to face him and said a little bitterly. "yeah, it was nice seeing you again, Jacob."

We said our goodbyes and went to our respective cars, bella had to drive again with me but this time I didn't turn on the radio and we didn't talk either. I could tell she was trying really hard not to think and not to freak out.


	5. Chapter 5

**What a Night.**

"so, how was the beach?" Alice asked me as soon as I put a foot on the house.I literally jumped a foot on the air and my hand flashed to my chest.

"Jesus! Alice you scared me." I scolded her and she simply smiled sweetly.

"Sorry. So tell me."

I hesitated and looked around, should I tell her the truth? I could but then I had to make sure she didn't tell anyone, and more importantly I had to make sure nobody heard me.

"Who is home?" I asked.

"Nobody, just Jas and I—it went that bad?"

I started walking to the living room and found jasper watching TV, I sat on the white love sit that faced the window and decided to tell them because I knew I could trust them.

"at the beginning it was great but then Jacob came and we started to talk and his friends—I forgot to tell you he went with two of his friends—said and I quote ' the cullens don't come here' and Bella got curious and I got scared so I put a spell on everyone and they left except for Jacob and Bella, so she introduced me to him and he said we should take a walk and I was stupid enough to say 'oh, that sounds great' –oh! And I had a vision but I'll tell you about it later—and then we started talking and Bella asked why the Cullens couldn't go and then she said I was one! I almost had a heart attack and Jacob got all tense so I had to let go of his arm" jasper raised his eyebrows at this."—oh! Don't look at me like that! I was simply playing around.—and I had to clarify that I was adopted and that I didn't had the last name Cullen and I had to tell them about mom and dad and—"

"Woah! You told them how they died? I mean, you told them about your sister and the attack?"Alice asked eyes wide.

"Of course not!" I said with a roll of my eyes. "it wouldn't make any sense to them. I just said they're dead. I think Jacob lost someone, for the way he looked at me. Any way, the thing is he told her! You know the story about the cold ones? He told her and she looked at me suspiciously and then Jacob said 'so when I finish the rabbit…'" I said it in a very bad imitation of his voice.

"Because he has a wolskvagen, I know that because I'm an idiot and I flirted with the guy, god! Why do I have to be such a slut?!—and I obviously had to tell him' you should definitely visit me.' I swear I don't know what took over me. Why did I tell him that? He is a Quileute for the love of god! Oh! and Bella hates me, you should've seen her face I swear she was about to freak out and have an emotional breakdown which cant happen because Rosalie will kill me and Edward will wait until I come back to life to give me a painful and slow death." I finished practically at the verge of tears. I was dead. I blinked back the tears and look at both jasper and Alice, they were shocked.

"They won't kill you, now relax." Jasper said and I immediately started to relax.

Alice was staring into space and then looked at me, a smile on her face. "You like him."

My mouth fell open and my eyes popped out of their sockets. What? No, I didn't. I was playing. There's a difference. I mean he was cute and really funny and easy to be around with but… nah, I couldn't like him, I just met him!

"No, I don't. I was playing just like I do with everyone."

"Honey, you had the opportunity to cut whatever relationship you were developing with him and what did you do? You told him to come up here and visit you. You know esme and Carlisle won't let you be with him right?" Alice questioned me and I frowned. The girl had a point, but that was because I liked him as a friend nothing more.

"Do you want to hear about my vision or not?" I changed the subject and asked kind of hoping she'd say no. Alice sat next to jasper that put an arm around her protectively; I swear those two were the cutest.

"Ok. Go ahead tell me." She smiled at me.

"I had a vision that concerned myself; don't you think is weird? I haven't had one of those since 1940." I frowned, actually worried this time.

"What was it about? Maybe you're supposed to change something." Jasper added to the conversation.

"it was about me and a guy, we were outside and it was raining and I was crying and he looked pretty upset himself—I think he was breaking up with me… but that doesn't make sense because I was apologizing, I had hurt him." I muttered. Jacob's face on my vision flashed in my head, what had I done to make him look so sad? Woah, Stop! You do not like him, so you do not care.

"But then he said 'it's not you it's me.' and something about him not being good and it ends there." I finished.

"Maybe you have to stop it." Jasper commented because Alice had gone back to staring into space.

"No, it felt like it had to happen I felt like I needed to learn more, there was more to it than just that." I frowned. When was this going to happen? I needed to know.

"Who was the guy?" Alice asked, finally snapping out of her trance.

"Nobody, just some guy." I lied easily. I couldn't tell her it was Jacob because then she`d say she was right about me liking him.

"It was Jacob, wasn't it?" she taunted and I rolled my eyes. Suddenly I was really nervous, ugh! Why? Why did she know me so well?

"I'm going to sleep. Alice, jasper, good night." I avoided her question and jasper's questioning look as I got up from the love seat, flicked my wrist and made my bag—which I had left forgotten at the entrance— follow behind me and went up to my room.

My room was probably the biggest room on the house; that is because it was two rooms put together. On one part of the room was my bed – the board was white with gold and the covers were a light purple and the duvet was as white as snow with gold on the edges—with my bedside table and my dresser which was the same color of my bed with some gold strings on the drawers. The other part of the room had an entire wall of glass and in the center of it there was a white piano—Edward had given it to me for my birthday—next to it was my violin and my cello. Then there was a door that was the bathroom and another door that took to my walk-in closet—which was really big and always full of new clothes because Alice never got bored of buying me more and more clothes. There were about three paintings, two small and one big, hanging from each wall, the big one I painted it on the 70's and it was pretty good, it was even shown in a gallery in London. I smiled as I looked at it and with that I fell asleep.

I pulled up the car on the parking lot and got out, thanks to my magic and really good hearing I could hear the guys muttering things like 'she's so hot' or 'why cant I have her' and the one which actually made me stop and glare at the guy with pure hatred: ' I want to bang her on the janitor's closet until she's screaming my name so hard they can hear us.'

The guy who said it was an average tall boy—he didn't get the title 'man' because of what he said—brown hair and blue eyes. I knew him, he was on my Spanish class; He was my type but after what he said there was no way I'd talk to him. Or I could teach him a lesson. I turned around and made my way over to him, he was surrounded by his friends and they all froze to the spot when they saw me approaching them.

"Hi. umm which one of you is Zach?" I asked as sweetly as possible. They're eyes widened and one of them—a tall guy with blonde hair and brown eyes, who was wearing a dark purple aeropostal shirt—pointed at him.

"hi, I couldn't help but hear your comment about me and I have to tell you something; one: you are a sicken boy who totally disgust me and I wouldn't want any of you body parts anywhere near me because it would make me want to puke, I'd rather eat my dog and I love that thing. And two: If you were to bang me, trust me I wouldn't be screaming your name because for what I've heard you aren't good at all and you wouldn't be able to handle the things I could do to you, besides I like them big and you're too short for " that being said I turned around and left without another glance.

I could hear the guys saying things like 'ohhh, burn' and even an' is it wrong that the way she acted just turned me on?', I actually laughed at that one. Today was a sunny day, a rare one here in forks, and I couldn't help but enjoy the sun's warmth; I was all by myself and it felt weird, the Cullens couldn't come when there was a sunny day because they sparkle. I went to my locker, expecting to be able to talk to Bella but just like last week she wasn't there. I sighed as I open my locker and got out my books for Spanish and art; Bella had been ignoring me since the beach trip, everyone could see that—the rumors were that she was interest in the guy from the reservation and I stole him away, I guess that rumors had been started by Jessica—although I still ate at their table and was great friends with Angela, Bella would never talk directly to me or make eye contact what so ever.

"Hey, Antoinette!" Angela called at me as she made her way over to me.

I smiled." Hey, Angie. What's up?"

She leaned on Bella's locker and eyed me worriedly. "I heard what you said to Zach… are you alright?"

"yeah, just a little insulted that's all."

After I said that a smile appeared on her face and she stood up straight. " okay then. So you know prom is In about a month right?"—I nodded—"well, Eric just asked me out" Her eyes glinted in excitement and I smiled, she was so happy.

I raised my eyebrows playfully and she blushed. "anyway—Jessica was telling me she was going dress shopping tonight and I was wondering if you wanted to join us?" she finished.

"angela, I don't have a date." I pouted, actually sad. I was the 'hottest' thing in school and no-one bothered to ask me, why?

"awww, don't worry, honey someone will ask you." She comforted me.

"I'll go but if nobody asks me can I skip prom?" I asked frowning.

Angela laughed. "That's good for me but I don't think your sister would let you." She teased me.

The idea of Alice actually letting me skip prom was so crazy that it made me realize there was no way in hell I could avoided it; generally Edward would go with me but this year he was going with Bella—even though, they weren't really together now, it was a fact that they were going to be no matter what rose said—so I guess I'd be riding solo. I laughed along with Angela as I shut my locker's door and grab my bag.

"Common, let's go to Spanish." I said as she entwined her arm with mine.

Angela and I sat together in class and started talking about prom dresses when the teacher arrived.

"Buenos días, class." Mrs. Ramirez said.

"Buenos días, Mrs. Ramirez." The class answered, I didn't even bothered to look up; I was the best of the class and I could do whatever I wanted as long as I passed the test. that was Mrs. Ramirez and I unspoken agreement.

So just like always I dozed out and was surprised when my track of thought went to a certain Quileute. I haven't seen or heard of Jacob since we went to la push and it made me feel weird, I wanted to see him. I wanted to laugh with him, I wanted him to flash me that grin that showed his beautiful pearly teeth.

"What are you thinking about? Or should I say who?" Angela teased.

I knew she was kidding but I couldn't help but blush, I never blush and here I was _blushing_ about someone who I've only met once.

"There's actually someone? Who? Why didn't you tell me?" Angela pouted and I laughed.

"There's nothing to tell." I went back to sketching on the back of my notebook and tried to ignore Angela and the heat on my cheeks. _Great! I never blush and when I actually do it doesn't go away._

"is it the guy you met at the beach? He was cute." She commented causing my head to snap up and look at her.

"Angela! Shut up!" I slap her playfully in the arm and she laughed.

"Relax, I'm just kidding. I won't tell anyone, though. So don't worry." She assured me and I smile. That was the reason Angela was my friend, you could tell her you'd killed someone and she would keep it a secret, she was loyal.

"I have to tell you something. Bella's coming to port Angeles with us." She said after a while.

I froze. Ugh. She's going to ignore me and Jessica is going to be on her side and it's going to be really awkward.

"Angela! You know she's not talking to me. I'm not going." I groaned, frustrated. I wasn't going to prom anyway.

"Please! I can't go with them. You know, Jessica won't tell me what she really thinks and Bella doesn't care; she's going for an Indian book or something."

I frowned. Indian book? That didn't sound right. Was she going to look for a Quileute stories book? I was going to answer her but the bell rang and everyone got up from their seats as fast as they could, I took my time and then slowly got up from my seat. If Bella was looking for that book—if there was said book—then she definitely knew, maybe I should go and talk to her.

"You know what? I'll go but if Bella physically hurts herself for trying to hurt me and trips on the process, it's on you." I laughed knowing how clumsy Bella was, earning a glare from Angela who after a few seconds also laughed slightly.

We made our way to art silently and occasionally saying a 'hi' to some people. These kids made me roll my eyes, just because I was friends with Angela, Eric and the rest of the group didn't mean I was going to be everybody's friend.

"What really happened between you and Bella?" she asked cautiously.

I sighed as I put my sketch pad on my table and got a pencil out. "Nothing, she's just angry I guess."

I made it clear that I didn't want to talk about it and Angela got the hint because she turned to her table and started to take some things out.

"I didn't steal him from her, Angela. He wasn't hers to start with." I added just in case she believed what people were saying.

"I know, I believe you." She smiled at me.

"Hey! I'm home" I yelled as I put a foot on the house and left my bag on the floor.

"Hey. Are you doing something tonight? I was thinking movie night." Alice said, stopping me from going up the stairs.

"Yeah, actually I'm going to port Angeles with Jessica, Angela and Bella." I said with a smile.

Alice's face fell. "oh! Ok, another time then."

It was really hard for me to say no to Alice and I knew she was feeling left out because I had been spending more time with Angela than with her and It made her sad. When I got to my closet I didn't feel like looking for something to wear, so I closed my eyes and thought of a knee-high dress and my leather jacket, when I opened my eyes I was wearing the exact same clothes. Smiling I made my way over to the door where Jessica's car was already waiting for me.

"Ok, I like this one. It makes my boobs look good." Jessica said as she looked herself on the mirror.

Suddenly a group of guys knocked on the window whistling at us, Angela turned scarlet and Jessica simply muttered a 'that's disgusting', I just ignored them. Angela and Jessica were in front of Bella and me showing us their dresses. I had decided I'd let Alice choose my dress and Bella was simply not into it.

"That definitely is the one, it looks great." I complimented Jessica.

"I want to go to this bookstore. See you on the restaurant?" Bella asked, getting up from her seat by the window. Suddenly a cold feeling ran through my back and up my neck. Something bad was going to happened I just knew it.

"do you mind if I go with you? I'm also looking for a book." I asked giving her a look that said 'you can trust me'.

She hesitantly nodded and I followed her out of the shop. The book store was really far from the dress shop and I couldn't help but notice it was getting darker and darker by the minute. Bella asked for some weird book and I simply looked around, the place was definitely Quileute and so was the seller.

"There you go." He said with a husky voice, causing me to look up from the book I was checking over.

"Thanks." Bella whispered and went through the door I was going to follow her but stop and gave the seller a warm smile.

"Good night." I said and went out of the shop.

Bella and I were walking down a dark alley when some guys appeared at the end of the alley; I stopped when I notice the aura around them, it was pitch black.

"Bella, I think it's better if we turn around." I suggested and she nodded while she turned around.

I heard footsteps behind us but didn't turn around, I wasn't scared, I knew I could take them and tear them to pieces but if I did that then Bella would have a break down, there was no way she'd see that and not freak out.

"hey!" some guy said and I turned around. Four guys were behind us and when they saw Bella and I stop they started to do a circle around us.

"We saw you before, your friends were buying dresses." He purred to Bella and she whimpered. I could feel my blood start to boil, if they didn't stop soon I was going to loose it.

"What about you, princess? Did you buy a dress?" another guy said to me while he touched my face.

"Do not touch me and don't call me princess." I hissed at him and he actually removed his hand from my face, I guess he sensed the venom behind my voice.

The circle started to close and Bella and I were back to back, there was no way out. _Ok, girl. Think! It's not the first time you've been in a hard situation. What about that time in Chicago? You got out of there by yourself._ A voice said in the back of my mind. Yeah, but I wasn't with a very clumsy human with me at that moment. _Good point. I wish Edward was here, he was right I should'v_e _never talked to Bella. _As if on cue, the silver Volvo that belonged to Edward came round the street and almost ran over the guys, almost. He got out of the car and looked at me then he turned around to look at Bella.

"get in the car." he groaned, whether it was at Bella or to all of us I couldn't tell. Bella didn't move so I had to slightly push her towards the car.

"Common, Bella, move." I said softly, if that situation had affected me—and I had seen and lived through a lot of things in my life—I couldn't even imagine what It had done to her.

She carefully opened the passenger seat door and sat then closed the door, I waited a little bit and saw as Edward growled at the guys, and scaring the hell out of them and making them run away. Edward turned around and went to the front seat as I sat on the backseat and closed the door fast enough for someone to realize I was paranormal, I didn't care though.

"You should slow down." Bella warned after about 5 minutes of driving at 120 km/h.

"I should go back and kill them." Edward groaned and my eyes widened. I rearranged myself on the backseat and leaned over the middle of Bella's and Edward's seat.

"No, you shouldn't!" I scowled him, completely serious.

He glanced sideways at me before saying: "you don't know the awful things they were thinking!"

_I can imagine them, Edward. So calm down! _He groaned at me and I rolled my eyes._ Seriously? I mean common, right now I'm scarier than you and I'm not even angry anymore._

"And you do?" Bella questioned and Edward and I looked at her, forgetting completely about our unspoken fight.

"You could imagine it." I muttered when I realized Edward wasn't about to answer.

"say something to distract me." He muttered to Bella and not to me, so I simply relaxed against the leather of the backseat.

"put on your seatbelt." She said quickly, afraid of what could happen if she didn't. I snorted and rolled my eyes as I went from a sitting position to lying down.

"You put your seatbelt." Edward smirked.

I arched a perfectly penciled in eyebrow, maybe her distraction wasn't that bad. I started to doze off and closed my eyes for a minute, realizing how tired I actually was; I could hear Bella and Edward talking—well, more like Bella distracting Edward—about how Bella was going to kill Tyler, why? No idea but apparently she was. Suddenly we jolted to a stop and my eyes quickly opened, I straighten up and look out of the window to find that we were at the Italian restaurant we were supposed to go to. _Smooth, Edward, real smooth and please note my sarcasm. _Edward just limited himself to roll his eyes at me.

"Call for Jessica and Angela, I won't go looking for them if they also get lost." Edward ordered me once we were out of the car and completely ignoring my thoughts.

"Angie! Jessica! Over here!" I shouted as I waved my hand over my head at them. They turned around and made their way over to us.

"Where have you been?" Jessica asked with a brow raised.

"We got lost and then we ran into my brother, sorry." I said with a roll of my eyes.

"It's ok… but we already eat so…" Angela said with an 'I'm so sorry' look on her face. I glanced at Edward and then at Bella.

"I think Bella and my sister should eat something. Do you mind if I take Bella to her house later?" Edward said with a stunningly beautiful smile. Their eyes widened and they nodded.

"Su—sure see you tomorrow, bye!" Jessica stuttered and they walked down the street to Jessica's car.

We went into the restaurant and-after convincing the waiter—got a kind of private table.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The Truth, Finally.**

"She isn't and wont be in shocked, Edward, stop looking at her like that." I scowled. Edward stopped looking at Bella and turned at me.

"She should, any normal person would." He shrugged and I rolled my eyes.

"I feel safe with you." Bella told Edward, she, of course, was flushing while she said that.

_How much cliché can this be? I might as well get a boyfriend; everyone's going out with someone now. _Edward furrowed and sent me a look that said 'we'll talk when we get home' and muttered to himself "this is harder than I thought".The three of us fell silent until Bella, being Bella, said something really stupid but at the same time so true.

"You're in a better mood when your eyes are a light brown, almost gold." Bella mumbled. Both Edward and I looked at her agape.

"What?" he asked.

"Yeah, I've even got a theory." She mumbled, looking down.

He glared at her and asked:

"Another theory?"

_Another? Wait! What did I miss? _I thought. Edward again gave me _that_ look so I simply scoffed.

"Why are you here? In port Angeles, I mean." she asked. I tense but Edward didn't even flinch, I wondered how he did that.

"Next question." He said nonchalantly.

"Ok… let's suppose someone is able to read everyone's mind except for a few…" she started.

"If that were true, it'd be just one exception. Not a few." I cut in, leaning on the table and actually interested on this conversation. Bella froze but tried to hide it unsuccessfully.

"How does it work? Does it have any limitations?" she continued, looking at Edward.

"Well, if someone would have been careful"—he said looking at me—"It wouldn't have happened so… you know how I told you, you attracted accidents? I was wrong, you attract trouble. Anything troublesome around will find you, no matter where you are."

"I agree." I mused with a smirk on my lips.

"I followed you, Bella. Mia" I looked at him when he used my old nickname but shrugged. "told me you were coming and I tagged along. I've never tried to keep someone alive as much as I've tried with you."

Bella frowned. "Do you think I should have died the day of the accident? That that was my time to die?"

"Your time to die was the day I met you at the lab class. You remember, don't you?" Edward added when he saw Bella's face change. She slightly nodded.

"And yet, here you are. Life really is ironic, isn't it?" I said sarcasticaly.

"How did you find me?" Bella asked.

"He heard me."—she gave me a confused looked and I sighed—"when we were…there, I was thinking of a way out and how I had gotten myself out of a situation similar to that on Chicago but then I remembered you were there and there was no way I could do what I was going to do with you there so I started to think about how much I wished Edward would find us. He heard my thoughts, he saw through my mind where we were and in what situation we were so he saved us." I finished and looked around.

This restaurant wasn't really much and I'd much rather go home but Bella wouldn't finish eating.

"You want to go home?"

"I want to get out of here." Bella answered Edward's question and I sighed. _Thank you, God._

We paid the bill and went to our car, Bella was at the passenger seat and I was at the back but this time instead of going to sleep I paid attention to the conversation going in front.

"Why can't you read my mind?" Bella wondered out loud. Oh, so she had caught on.

"I don't know. What was your new theory?" he commented, while he made eye contact with me on the review mirror.

"I heard it on Saturday, at the beach. I ran into Jacob black and he told Marie and me a scary story." Her voice faded away and I closed my eyes shut as I remembered the reason why Edward would kill me.

_The cold ones… we descent from wolves…your kind calls them vampires…you have goose bumps… _And the one that definitely signed my death sentence: _I'm 100% single… you should go visit me…_

"…vampires." Bella finished and I realized I had missed half of the conversation.

"How did you convince him to tell you?" Edward asked.

Bella looked sideways at me and then said:

"Well, I was kind of flirting but then I got the impression that Mia, can I call you Mia?"—I nodded and she continued—"that she was interested in him so I let her flirt with him and one thing led to another and soon enough he was telling us. I'm sorry for the way I acted last week."

"The past is the past." I shrugged.

"How old are you?" she suddenly asked Edward, I could tell she had been trying to ask that since the very beginning.

"Seventeen." He immediately said.

"Edward." I warned.

"I'm pretty old." He groaned but apparently that was enough for Bella.

"What about you?" she asked me.

I groaned. "Ok, I'm really not happy with this and I swear that if you ever call me old I'll hurt you… I'll turn 3905 years old on September 12th." I finished with a lovely smile as I saw Bella's eyes pop out of their sockets.

"Don't!" I warned as I saw her open her mouth probably to comment on my age.

She closed her mouth and then opened it again, just to close it again.

"Do you feed on human blood?" she finally asked me, turning slightly pink.

"I'm not a vampire so I don't think I should be the one to tell you." I said glancing at Edward.

"No. but don't get confident, sometimes we loose control. Marie Antoinette has, and she isn't a vampire imagine what we can do." Edward added and I looked down, not proud of my actions.

"What _are_ you?" she questioned, causing me to look up.

"I'm a hybrid but I promise I'll tell you my back-story another day, I'm not on the mood to go down my memory-line right now." I mumbled and she nodded but I knew she would actually ask me someday.

"Why did you miss school?" she shyly asked.

_She missed you. _Edwards's knuckles turned white against the wheel when he heard my thoughts and then Bella said:

"I don't like not seeing you, it makes me feel weird."

"That's not good." Edward and I muttered. The difference was that I said it under my breath and he said it out loud.

"I'm dangerous, Bella. This is a mistake. Keep it in mind. Please." He pleaded and I almost felt like disappearing, this was way too personal.

We all fell on a deep silence after that and I simply looked out the window, we should be almost there. Oh, how much I wanted to get home!

Soon enough we were at Charlie's house and Bella got out of the car but not before making sure she'd see Edward tomorrow morning and not before Edward told her strictly not to go to the woods by herself.

"You and I are doomed." I commented with a light laugh.

He turned around and smirked at me. "At least I'm not the one with a crush on a wolf."

"I don't have a crush on anyone! And besides, he is not a wolf!" I whined, feeling my cheeks heat.

"Then why are you turning red?" he laughed and I snorted.

"Oh! Leave me alone! He's not a wolf, though, the kid didn't even believe his own story" I said with a roll of my eyes.

"Dumb kid, then."

"We're home!" I yelled over my shoulders as I made my way up to my room, the tiredness of today's events finally catching up to me.

"Surprise!" Alice and rose shouted when I opened my door.

"Oh, my God! Please tell me that's not what I think it is!" I yelled excitedly.

On my bed were two big boxes and one of them I recognized it from one of my favorites stores in Paris, did she get my dress? How did she get it so quickly?

"Why don't you open it and find out?" esme said appearing on my doorframe. I flicked my wrist and the box flew towards me, I caught it as I sat on the floor Indian style.

"Couldn't you just go to the bed?" Rosalie asked annoyed by my magic, she didn't like it because it reminded her of the supernatural and the fact that she was one.

"Oh! Come on, Rose! I almost never use it." I whined. I undid the lacy ribbon that was around the box and lifted the box cover.

"It's the most beautiful dress I've ever seen, Alice!" I gasped, completely breathless.

I carefully lifted the dress so I could see it better, it was a cream-colored, ankle high dress; it was fit on the torso and just about under my breast it had a dark purple band that made a ribbon at the side, the skirt was loose and it moved when you moved.

"I love it! But I told you I don't have a date!" I pouted.

Alice smile wickedly. "You will, I've seen it."

"Alice!" all of us laughed at her and she tagged along.

"_take me, I'm alive, never was a girl with a wicked mind but everything looks better when the sun goes down…" _my phone went off and I let the dress slid into the box and started to look for it on my bag.

"_you make me wanna die, I'll never be good enough…" _I finally found it and saw it was an unknown number so furrowing I pressed answer.

"hello?"

"_Marie Antoinette? Hi, it's Jacob."_

My eyes widened and my head instantly whipped around to see the three vampires that were with me on the room, Alice was smiling sweetly at me and esme had a curious look on her face, Rosalie, however, just looked bored.

"Jacob black? Wow! Hi, what's up?" I said.

"_Not much, what about you?"_

He was small talking? In a guy that only means one thing: they want to ask you something. What does he want? Not that I care talking to him.

"Actually I just got home; I was at Port Angeles with Bella. We even talked about you." I said sweetly, I did like him at least a little bit, so what? Besides, playing is fun.

_"Really? What did you say?" _he asked me and I think I melted a little_. _Why does his voice has to be so sexy?

"I heard that!" Edward laughed from downstairs and I rolled my eyes. _It's not like I care…_

"Nothing, just how neither Bella or I have seen or heard of you in the past 2 and a half weeks." I commented with a small smirk on my face.

_"I guess that's changed, now—so what are you doing on Tuesday?"_ he asked and I almost laughed out loud. Guys were so predictable.

"Tuesday... nothing, I think. Why?" I giggled, actually giggled. If I wanted my vision to happen I needed to at least date the guy, right?

_"Well, I'm going up to forks on Tuesday to look for some things for the rabbit and maybe I could visit you?"_ he commented nonchalantly. And that was when Alice decided to step in.

"Ok. That's _so_ cute!" she shrieked and I laughed.

"Alice, Out!"

"Why?" she pouted causing Rosalie to roll her eyes while she went downstairs.

"Because I'm in the middle of a conversation. I'll give you those boots you want so much." I negotiated.

"Bye!" she called disappearing.

"Sorry for that." I said into the phone, still laughing. "My sister is… well, weird."

_"No problem, so what do you say?"_

"Well, I guess I'll see you after school then." I smiled.

"_Good, bye then." _ He said and I hang up. I sighed as I plopped on my bed, did I just get asked out? Maybe, well if that was the case then I couldn't be happier.

"Marie Antoinette Emmarette!" I heard Edward call at me.

_Fuck. What did I do now? _I hadn't done anything wrong, well not that I remembered. I swear if Rosalie set me up again I'll kill her.

"Yes?" I asked sweetly as I stand on the stairs, ready to disappear if it was necessary.

"You do realize you're violating the treaty by going out with him, right?" Edward scowled. Carlisle and esme standing right behind him. I was being confronted, were they really going to tell me what I could and what I couldn't do?

"No, I'm not." I said calmly as I rolled my eyes.

Edward took a step forward. "Yes, you are. The treaty says we can't fraternize with them and that we can't set foot on their land."

I went down the stairs with a serious look etched to my features, any traces of feign innocence and joy gone, and stopped when I was a few feet away from him.

"Do I have to remind you who wrote that thing? I mean, actually wrote it?" I paused seeing the rest of us start to gather around us. I guessed they sensed a fight coming, I wonder why esme and Carlisle haven't stepped in yet.

"the treaty strictly says that no Cullen, or any person who has that surname, is to step a foot on Quileute territory nor is he or she to fraternize with any of the inhabitants of said territory, if this were to occur the protectors of the tribe, meaning the werewolves or shape-shifters, are to declare war against the cullens and must destroy them, the cullens can defend themselves because a fight in which one side doesn't attack back wouldn't be fair." I recited, I knew those words by heart; I wrote them, after all.

"Sweetie, I'm sorry but you just said Edward's right." Esme carefully said.

"No, I didn't. because one: I'm not a Cullen, I'm an Emmarette; I might live with you but I never took your last name, two: there's no proof of there being any protectors left so we're not really in trouble, three: we're not meeting in la push we're meeting here and four: he doesn't even believe in those thing so for him I'm just a pretty girl and I like that." I finished.

Esme was deep in thought and so was Edward, Carlisle however had a small smile forming on his lips. Edward opened his mouth and closed it again; he did this about three times before saying:

"I still don't think is a good idea."

_Are you kidding me? You were joking about it 20 minutes ago!_

"That was because I thought you weren't serious about it!" he exclaimed and I glared at him.

"Son, I think she's right." Carlisle finally said and I smiled.

"You can go as long as he isn't a werewolf." Esme joined in and I smiled.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I laughed as I ran down the few stairs left and hugged Carlisle.

That morning I was incredibly surprised to find Edward had disappeared and that he was taking Bella to school so I had to drive by myself and when I got there I was practically attacked by none other than Bella swan.

"Mia! Did something interesting happen yesterday?" she asked and I frown as I took my bag from the backseat.

"Whatever do you mean?" I chuckled as we walked through the parking lot towards our friends.

"I don't know. Any calls?" she taunted and I stopped walking, realization finally sinking.

"It was you. You gave him my phone number."

She looked down, clearly embarrassed and mumbled:

"I treated you awfully bad the last two weeks and I could tell he liked you so…" She looked clearly uncomfortable and I rolled my eyes.

"Bella, relax I'm not mad." She sighed relieved and we continued walking.

"I'm meeting with him after school." I sing-sang, knowing she was curious but was too afraid of asking.

"Oh, my God, You are kidding! Where are you going?" she beamed and I looked at her completely surprised.

"You know, this is the first time I've seen you act like a real teenager." I teased, causing her to roll her eyes.

"We're meeting in town; he's looking for some things for the rabbit and asked me if I wanted to tag along. Edward is completely mad at me for agreeing to go, though, so I recommend you don't say it was your idea on the first place." I commented as we finally reached our group of friends. The parking lot was uncommonly busy today; everybody was talking and beaming over the same thing: prom.

"Monte Carlo? That's our prom theme?" Jessica exclaimed.

Mike, Eric, Jessica and Angela were discussing prom excitedly, they obviously couldn't wait for it to come. Apparently Alice had had a vision about the theme because my dress was perfect for it.

"It wasn't like I made him. He's been calling me for a week trying to convince me to give him your number, I simply gave in." Bella laughed and I tagged along.

"What are you two laughing so fondly about?" Angela asked coming towards us.

"Fondly?" Bella wondered out loud and I shrugged.

"You know what I meant."

"Nothing. We're friends again." I said and Angela's face lighted up.

"Yes! I knew it wouldn't be forever." She screamed hugging us.

I laughed heartedly. Why hadn't I made friends before? _Because they get old, have a family and die while you are as young as you could ever be._ A little judging voice said in the back of my head. That thought got me down a little bit because it was true: Angela would get old and eventually die and I wouldn't see her ever again leaving me alone and without friends again.

In a way or another that wasn't true because I'd always have the cullens but I live with them and as much as I love them, I cant tell them certain things and it's cool to have someone other than your family.

Jacob would die too; maybe dating him isn't such a great idea. One of the things I've learned in the last 3000 years is to never get attached to humans because if you do then you get hurt when they're gone. What if I got attached to Jacob? I don't want to get hurt again. It doesn't necessary have to last forever, we'll have fun and next year I'll leave to 'college' and he'll be nothing more than a memory.

I didn't have to worry about Bella, though. I knew for a fact that she'd belong to the supernatural, whether she'll turn now or in five years I didn't know but what I did know was that she'd turn. She'll be my friend forever or maybe not. My sister's been alive as long as I have and we haven't seen each other since the 20's so I guess being immortal doesn't assure you any company.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: so, a new chapter. i don't like this one, at all. but I couldnt fix it, no matter what i did. it's kind of like a filler chapter more than anything but there's some dialogues between Jacob and Marie. the story does get better in next chapter, I honestly can't wait to get to New Moon and that's in at least four chapters, or maybe more. well, enjoy and review .**

**_Chapter 7: New Plan: Just Friends._**

English was the only class where the three of us were together, so as soon as we got there we sat together, Bella to my left and Angela to my right.

"Morning, class. I'm sure you've already finished reading pride and prejudice. Haven't you?" he said as soon as he entered class and flopped his books on the table.

"Actually, sir, you said we'd be reading it in class." Sarah, a kind of nerdy girl with tacky glasses and bright red hair, said as she raised her hand.

"Oh! That's right, Sarah. Thank you. So let's see who will be our victim for today's class." He told us and started to roam the room with his eyes.

We all groaned and some of us tried as hard as they could to avoid the teacher's eyes. I was one of those people, I had read that book at least 20 times and there was nothing I hated more than having to read it in class, the teachers always made it boring.

"Miss Cullen, do the honors?" he questioned me with annoyance.

Saying he didn't like me much, is and understatement. He pretty much loathed me because I never paid attention but always aced his tests; I'm pretty sure he thought I cheated.

"Sure." I bitterly smiled at him and looked through my stuff until I found the book.

"Chapter 22.22twenty-two." He demanded and I rolled my eyes as I looked for the page.

I cleared my throat and started reading:

"The Bennets were engaged to dine with the Lucases and again during the chief of the day was Miss Lucas so kind as to listen to Mr. Collins. Elizabeth took an opportunity of thanking her. "It keeps him in good humour," said she, "and I am more obliged to you than I can express." Charlotte assured her friend of her satisfaction in being useful, and that it amply repaid her for the little sacrifice of her time. This was very amiable, but Charlotte's kindness extended farther than Elizabeth had any conception of; its object was nothing else than to secure her from any return of Mr. Collins's addresses, by engaging them towards herself. "

"That's enough, now what can we get from that?" the teacher interrupted me and turned towards the board to write some things.

That's why I didn't like school, they took something as entertainment as reading and turned it into something boring. After 20 more horrifying minutes, the bell finally rang and we all made our way out.

"Longest class ever." Angela complained as we put our things in the lockers and took our next books out.

"You know what? I'm ditching." They looked at me surprised and with wide eyes.

"You guys coming?" I asked already knowing the answer was no.

"no, no, no, no. no way. I've never ditched in my entire life." Angela shrieked and Bella nodded in agreement.

"Oh, well. Too bad. I am leaving. Bye!" I called after them as I turned around and made my way down the hall to the front doors.

I had been driving around town for about an hour and a half, waiting for something to do; suddenly the music store appeared at my right and I stopped completely. I wondered If Michael was still working there, last time I saw him it was 1953 and he was just eighteen years old. I pulled up in front of the store and got out the car.

"Hello? Anyone?"

"Is that you, Antoinette?" his voice sounded just like then, just a little bit mature and tired. An old man walked through the corner of the shop and around the corner; I smiled and ran towards him to hug him.

"Michael!" I laughed. "I've missed you."

He knew my secret and honestly I think he's the only human I've ever told; in 1953 I was going around town when I found this shop and met him, then I started to go everyday through the year we were here. Michael eventually found out and swore to secrecy.

"Let me see you." He said as he separated from our hug and looked at me, his eyes wide. "My god, you haven't changed a bit."

I smiled and studied him, too. His face was wrinkled and his hair was silver but his eyes were the same soft brown i had grown to trust. I started walking around the shop, touching everything at my reach until my eyes fell on the piano.

"I don't age, remember?" I asked as I sat down and started to play.

"Yeah, well I was hoping you'd find a way." He mumbled. He then made his way to the back of the store and started to go through some things.

"What are you doing?" I asked, momentarily stopping playing.

"No, don't stop." He said as he made his way back but this time with a camera on his positioned right next to me and started shooting.

"Oh, no. you're not recording me. Again." I laughed as he continued to do so.

Even though I told him no to, I liked it. He knew that so he just kept doing it for about 10 minutes until I finally stopped playing.

"That's it!" I ordered but with a smile.

"Ok. I want you to have this." He said as he reached out for a box and handed it to me. I opened it, confused and was even more confused to see it full of papers and CD's.

"What's this?"

"Remember all the times I recorded you? I had my grandson convert them in CD's so you could have them. I know I probably won't see you again so I'm giving them to you."

I looked at him and gave him a sad smile, he was right. I wouldn't see him ever again and that pained me; I had to distance myself from the humans and he was really old.

"Thank you." I leaned in and hugged him.

"I should go." I sniffed a little as I took the box in my hands and made my way to the door.

"Bye, Marie. Have fun with eternity!" he laughed as he waved his hand and I smiled.

My car door made a loud _thud!_ As it closed once I had put the box inside, I decided I wouldn't be taking the car anymore but that I'd walk, so that's what I did. Suddenly my phone went off and I answered it without checking the id.

"Hello?" I answered.

_"I never picture you as the kind of girl to skip school."_

I turned around, trying to find the person who was calling me but with no success, I pouted.

"_Why so pouty?" _ He asked and I laughed.

"Oh, come on! You've got to tell me where you are. I can't see you." I pouted again but then smile when I actually saw him, he had his back to me and I took that opportunity to use my speed and be behind him in a blink of an eye.

"_Try harder, then." _ He chuckled and I laughed out loud making him jump and turn around.

"I thought you couldn't see me." Jake frowned.

"You know, when you told me you were coming up here I think you missed to mention you were skipping school." I said, avoiding answering his last statement and unasked question.

"Well, you didn't mention it either." He smiled at me as he put his phone back in his pocket. I did the same and started to walk, he just by my side.

"That is because I decided to skip this morning after I got tired of being in class." I mused.

We walked for a few minutes in complete silence, until I remembered why he was here.

"So, did you find what you were looking for?" I asked him.

"Yep, here it is." He signaled for a little plastic bag I hadn't realized he had.

"You want to eat something?" he then asked and I frowned.

"But it's eleven o'clock in the morning."

"Yeah, so?"

"Fine… let's go."

"What?" he laughed, obviously not offended.

"No, just don't take it the wrong way or anything! I like your hair really." I laughed, too.

We were in the only restaurant of the town and had already eaten but now we were just talking, not really bothering to go somewhere else.

"But you think it's too long? It's tradition, you know." He pretended to be hurt but still had a smile on his face. God, those teeth.

"I know. It's just that I've got a thing for short hair. Well, at least on me. I used to have it over here." I explained as I put my hand a little up my shoulders.

"Really, now? Maybe I'll cut my hair then." he teased me and I laughed.

"No! I like it. It makes you stand out. So I told you one of the things I like. What do you like?" I asked as I drank from my strawberry milkshake.

"Blue eyes." The answer was almost inmidiate.

"You are saying that because I have blue eyes, aren't you?" I asked, already knowing the answer was yes.

"Yeah, I actually am—I do like them, though. It was the first thing I noticed when we met and the way they show exactly what you're feeling." He commented.

I looked up and made eye contact, blue meeting brown and my heart skipped a beat. _No, no, no. you have to distance yourself from humans remember?_

"I have mom's eyes. Both my parents had blue eyes but mom's were an icy blue just like me. Charlotte, my sister, has blue eyes as well but a little darker, just like dad." I looked down, remembering my family was always hard.

Every time I said I was over it, it was a lie; I knew it had been my sister's fault that they had been left to die but I still thought I could have done something.

"You miss them?" he asked, causing me to look up again.

"More than I've let anyone know. We were the perfect family. My sister and I were best friends and we never fought. Mom and dad loved each other dearly. It was obvious, and their love grew every day. I always wished to have a love like theirs, but the accident happened, they died and I haven't spoken to charlotte in two years." My eyes started to water and I blinked hard so the tears would go away. I didn't need to cry.

_More like 90 years. _A voice in the back of my head reminded me. Right, I had spent 90 years without speaking to Charlotte because both of us had been stupid. I wish I could go back in time and fix it.

"Sorry, I'm doing all the talking. It's not fair to you." I told him, realizing he was still there. He had the same look he had on the beach: A mixture of sympathy and pity.

"If you want to talk about it, I don't care being silent." He smile but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"No, it's just that—I mean I _need_ to talk about it once in a while and it's not like I can talk to the Cullens because they could feel… I don't know… bad? And I stopped talking about it to my friends because I realized they don't really care." I muttered, suddenly feeling awkward.

"So you're saying I don't care?"

"No. God, you like turning things around! I know you care but I feel uncomfortable. I don't like talking about it much." I finished my voice back to normal.

We felt silent after that and I took that opportunity to look around. The place was pretty empty, with just four or so people: two on a table and the other two sitting in one corner of the bar.

"I lost my mom, too. That's why I care." He suddenly spoke.

I had to fight the urge to smile, I had been right. He had lost someone and that's why he cared. He knew what it was like.

"It was in a car crash, I was about nine. She was kind and really beautiful. Everyone at the reservation liked her." He was looking at everything except my face and I could tell it was really hard for him to speak of it.

"I'm truly sorry." I said truthfully to him.

Then, I don't know what came over me but I reached out and put my hand over his and squeezed it. He looked kind of shocked but smiled anyway.

"What else do you like?" he cleared his throat and returned to our older topic.

"Well, I love music and art. Oh! And fashion, although that's more like Alice's thing and music is Edward's so I only have art left." I pouted, making him laugh at me.

I was glad that the sadness was completely forgotten and we were laughing again.

"I like cars." He stated.

"No! Really? I wouldn't have guessed it." I said with sarcasm.

"Real funny, but seriously, I like to build them and undo them again. I also like football." He laughed and I shook my head.

"Oh! Common, Jake! That's obvious; I mean you're a boy. Tell me something that only you like." I whined.

I wanted to know something only his closest friend would know, I wanted for him to share a secret with me just like I did with him. If I couldn't be with him because he'd eventually die, I wanted us to be friends, close friends.

"Different from everyone who lives there, I actually like the reservation." He smirked. His eye twinkling with laughter and I realized they looked even better when he was smiling.

"Now, we're talking. I like the rain and the fire. I know it's weird but something about those two just…" I rambled, suddenly nervous about being under his gaze for so long.

"Can I ask you a question? Why is your accent so weird?" he suddenly asked, I could see he had wanted to ask that for a while now.

I raised my eyebrow and said:

"Well, when you can speak six languages perfectly and have live through the entire world in places you haven't even heard of… at the end you kind of end up with a weird accent."

His eyes popped out of his sockets and I smiled sweetly.

"Six languages? You're kidding, right?" he gasped, surprised.

"Nop. We moved around a lot so I had to learn." I said half the truth.

I didn't age and it's because of that that I had to constantly move around and I had the opportunity to learn a lot of languages: Spanish, French, English, Russian, Dutch and Portuguese; and of course I could also speak ancient Egyptian, Persian and Latin, seeing as though those were the most common languages back in the time when I was human.

"_I wanna be a billionaire so freaking bad…" _My cell phone rang and I groaned already knowing who it was.

"Yes?" I said, without hiding my annoyance.

"_Where are you? What were you thinking?"_ Alice's anxious voice reached me through the phone.

"Alice, relax. I skipped school, it's not like I killed someone." I told her.

"_You better not have!"_ she gasped and I rolled my eyes.

"What do you want?" I asked her, truly annoyed now.

"_I want you home now and I'm telling Carlisle." _She rushed through her words, clearly angry.

"Really, Alice? What are you, 5?" I scoffed.

It wasn't like Carlisle could ground me; I was older than him by a few millennia. He was just the head of the coven, which forced the Cullens to obey him. But I wasn't a Cullen or a vampire for that matter; I simply obeyed him by respect.

"_I don't care, I just want you here." _She hung up after that and I sighed.

"I guess I got caught." I told him. "I've got to go. I had fun, thank you."

He smiled and said:

"Yeah, me too. Maybe I'll give you a call?"

"Sure, bye."

I took my bag and went to the door but not before I leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, he was cute and I liked him very much. I could already see this lets-just-be-friends plan failing.

"I can't believe you did it! We're supposed to not stand out and you go and ditch? First the talking to the humans, then the going out with a Quileute and now you're skipping school! What's wrong with you? You've never been like this, is this you going through a phase? Is that it? You're going through a rebel phase!" Rosalie yelled at me.

When I got home Alice started talking to me about how worried she had been when she didn't see me at lunch but then Rose took over and decided to act like my mom. She had been going at it for about 20 minutes now, first she started with how irresponsible of me it had been and now she was saying I was going through some kind of phase, I really couldn't care less.

"You're 3905 years old, for God's sake! It's not your time to go through a phase! You should be beyond any phase, you should be more mature than any of us but instead you're still just and immature 17 year old girl!" she finished and looked at me, daring me to speak up.

Everyone was sitting around on the living room, except for Jasper and Alice who were standing in the middle—Edward was off somewhere, I'm guessing with Bella and Carlisle was still working so they couldn't help me out—Jasper deliberately took a step closer to me through the last half of the speech, feeling my emotions go off. Right now I was really upset and angry but most of all I felt embarrassed because Rosalie was treating me like a child in front of the guys, I mean, I was born before anyone even thought of her existence. I should be the one yelling not the one being yelled at.

"I'm 3904 not 3905 and, what the hell? I'm not going through a phase. I've been perfect forever and I just wanted to have fun for one day, is it so wrong? Ever since I was born I've had to behave perfectly, to talk perfectly, to think the right kind of thoughts, to never say what's on my mind, to do what people expect me to do." I started, getting up.

"And for once, I wanted to do whatever it was that I wanted to do, I wanted to be free. Can you really blame me?" I added, hissing.

Rosalie was just shocked that I'd actually react like that but I was feeling really off today and she wasn't helping. Emmet slowly got up from the couch and made his way over, clearly protecting Rosalie; I scoffed, did he really thought he could take me? I had been created to defeat his kind; any fight against me was ridiculous. Especially if he was old and not a newborn.

With a flick from my right wrist, Emmet went flying a few feet away. Thank God, the glass door to the outside was open; otherwise he would have broken it.

"And something else. I'm not immature because if I were I wouldn't have been able to rule a complete dimension full of supernatural creatures, don't you think?" that said I left to the stairs, Alice close behind me.

That's right. I had been the Queen of the underground world; better know as the whole of darkness or where all the supernatural creatures went to live when they wanted to be themselves, for the 300 years I was there things changed: things were fair and they started to be a little bit happier with their existence. That was until 1920 when I decided to abdicate and gave Charlotte the throne and went to live with Carlisle. What a great mistake; she turned everything upside down and now the underground world is a hell whole. I could hear Rose going after Emmet and Jasper controlling his emotions so none of them would come upstairs and kill me.

"Have you had any visions recently?" Alice asked sitting on my bed. I closed my door even though I knew it made no difference and that they could still hear us.

"Have you?" I asked back.

I hadn't had any visions in a while and it was really weird, I usually had a lot of visions; at least one per day.

"I keep having flashes about some killings; you know the ones that are going on around the state. It's a vampire, well three vampires to be exact and their being really reckless. It worries me." She explained to me. Her eyes reflected concern and I felt bad but I didn't have an answer.

"Sorry, Alice but I know nothing." I replied and flopped down on my bed.

The rest of the day was spent on chess games and fashion talking and some facebook stalking—I'm not proud of that part—and when Edward finally made it home, about 6:30, he, Alice and I sat down by the piano to play and sing. Jasper joined so he could hear Alice sing and so did esme, Rosalie, however, went to the garage to help Emmet with some stuff. She was still mad at me.

Edward and I were making a duet at the piano and we were both fighting for dominance, unfortunately we were as good as the other so it was a tie. After 5 minutes I changed the tune and started to sing as well, it was a song I had written about 20 years ago and I knew esme loved it; Edward picked it up quickly and we kept playing. Alice, however, stopped singing and simply watched me sing knowing how the song fitted my voice better.

The 2 days that came later were actually pretty good, Jacob called me yesterday saying that his father was coming up here to see the game at Charlie's and that maybe we could meet somewhere later; I was going to help Bella clean the truck so I told him we could meet there.

So here we were, Edward and I driving to Bella's house, he was going to tell him that she was going to dinner at our home, so she could meet them officially. Edward parked and got out of the car and –at vampire speed—ran to the truck and jumped on the roof, scaring the hell out of Bella.

"Surprise!" I laughed as I reached them.

"Could you act human? I have neighbors!" she exclaimed with a slight laugh.

"Nah, why be ordinary if you're extraordinary?" I joked, whole-heartedly.

"Good point." she muttered and I leaned on the truck.

"You're coming to my house tonight." Edward told her.

"What? Are you sure? What if they don't like me?" she worried and I raised an eyebrow.

"You're about to go to a house full of vampires and that's what you worry about?" he chuckled.

Bella frowned. "What else should I be worried about?"

"I don't know, maybe becoming dinner…" I said with sarcasm. Edward shot me a glare and I shrugged.

"What? It could happen." I defended.

"I gotta go." He frowned suddenly, making her and I frown too.

"Why? What's wrong?" she asked.

I looked at him, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with him. He couldn't be having cold feet about the dinner, could he?

"Nothing, you'll find out soon." He said with a look that pretty much screamed 'something'

He turned to the Volvo and got in, leaving Bella and I with a confused frown in our faces. Just when he was about to turn around the corner a red truck passed beside him, I didn't recognize the driver but he did, they made eye contact and Edward sped up and left.

Said truck parked just in front of the house and out went Jacob Black and I'm guessing his father. Charlie left the house and went to help his friend who, may I add, was in a wheelchair. Bella and I simply stood there awkwardly.

"Billy! I'm guessing you're here to visit my flat screen." Charlie said while patting his friend's shoulder.

"I brought Harry's fried fish." He said signalizing to a paper bag he had on his lap.

Billy Black was, physically, the typical Quileute. And something told me he was a Quileute intellectually, as well. He was sever-looking and, when his dark eyes met mine, he almost recoiled, like the thought of being in my presence was disgusting alone.

"Hi, Antoinette." Jake said while making his way over to me.

"Hi." I smiled and bit my lips. Suddenly Bella cleared her throat.

"I'm here too, you know." She muttered, slowly turning pink. We both turned around to look at her and laughed.

"Sorry, hi, Bella." Jake told her. They hugged friendly and Jake quickly made his way over to me again.

"I don't think we've met before." Jake's father, Billy, said causing me to stop looking at his son and look at him.

"Dad, this is Marie Antoinette, Antoinette this is Billy black, my father." Jacob introduced looking quite uncomfortable.

"So this is the girl you haven't stopped talking about." He said, taking his hand out for me to shake.

Even though his tone was light and his face revealed nothing, his eyes showed how much he disliked me, how betrayed he felt, after all this years. I raised and eyebrow at his comment, not wanting to ruin the mood just because he was angry with me, and looked at Jake who look like he wanted to disappear.

"It's nice meeting you." I smiled and took his hand.

Suddenly a bad feeling went down my spine. _You better not hurt him._ His thoughts entered my mind, making me flinch. I let go off his hand and made my way over to Bella, linking arms with her I whispered:

"He thinks I'm using Jacob."

Her head whipped around to look at me and I nodded, she was about to say something but was interrupted by Billy.

"Any news about the animal attacks?" he asked Charlie but it was loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Yeah, I'm actually starting to think they're not animal attacks." Charlie groaned as he pulled Billy's chair towards the entrance.

"I never thought they were." He answered back and stole a glance at me. Bella saw that and pulled at my arm.

"Relax, Bella." I whispered at her so none of the men could hear us and then made my way over to Jacob.

"Jake, what's new?" I asked him as I again made my way over to him and took his arm.

"Not much, actually." He flashed me that smile I was starting to love and liked to think he had only for me.

Charlie and Billy spent the day watching the game but Jake was with me all the time which means he was with Bella and I sitting on the kitchen table doing nothing but talking, I knew he wanted to watch the game but every time I told him to go he'd refuse.

"Let's play a game." Bella blurted out.

We reluctantly agreed and ended up playing that game were someone says a word and you have to say another one starting with the last letter of the word the other person said.

"Me first—phone."

"Elephant."

"tea."

"airplane."

We played for another 20 minutes until we got obviously bored.

"Ok, another one!" Bella exclaimed when she realized we didn't want to play anymore and were about to start talking.

"What is it with you and games?" Jacob asked and I nodded. I never thought Bella to be the kind of girl to like games, I guess I was wrong. She looked at us both and flushed.

"They're fun. What about the one with 20 questions? I played it with your brother." She said and I smirk.

"Oh, no. Not that one." Jacob refused and I frowned. What was wrong with that game? It was really fun; you could ask some weird stuff.

"Hmmm, we're playing but we're adding something, everyone has to answer if not, they have to do something." I added with an evil agreed and we started, Bella was first and she asked something as innocent as if we liked chocolate, we all said yes and then it was my turn.

"Have any of you ever done drugs?"

Bella's eyes widened and she shook her head in negation; I turned around and raised my eyebrow at Jake.

"My father and the sheriff are in the next room, I'm going to pass." He said, glancing nervously at the kitchen door.

"And I'm taking that as a yes." I smirk. He looked shocked and opened his mouth but then closed it.

"I only did it once. They forced me." he finally confessed.

"Sure, they did." I scoffed.

Bella then asked me if I had, to which I agreed saying it had been a bet in a sleepover; that was kind of true but it hadn't been in a sleepover, in the 70's I kind of ended up being addicted to it and had to go to rehab. One thing I regret.

After that awkward question of mine we played for another half hour until I realized it was a quarter till six and I had to leave to get ready for today's dinner. I told them I had to leave and said my goodbyes, giving Jake a kiss on the cheek and Bella a hug and waving at Charlie and Billy.

"Mia, wait! What should I wear for tonight?" Bella asked shyly.

"A shirt and some skinny jeans." I automatically answered.

Bella flushed. "I don't own any skinny jeans."

I rolled my eyes, of course she didn't. I made a small note to myself: Bella's birthday present? Some skinny jeans.

"Ok. Wear normal jeans and your converse. Because you have converse, right?" I mocked and she nodded with a small smile. "Very well, then."

I made my way to the house and—once in my room—got change in some jean shorts and a loose blouse; I took my high heels off and put my feet on the soft carpet, enjoying the contact.

"Alice." I sing-sang as I made my way down the stairs. She was by my side in a second, beaming at me.

"Let's go out." I said as I took her hand and jumped out of the window to the woods. We found Jasper near the river and went to his encounter.

"You've finally decided to spend some time with us after ditching us for more than a week?" He asked me once we reached him. I playfully punched him on the arm and he frown, faking hurt.

"Come on, you know I'm kidding." He dragged me to him and gave me a slight hug and I smiled.

Alice, Jasper and I spend at least 20 minutes out in the forest, playing and racing each other and laughing and making jokes until we heard some activity coming from the kitchen.

"Oh! Bella's here!" Alice exclaimed excitedly and stared skipping to the house, jasper hesitated but followed anyway and I shook my head and followed as well.

We climbed up the three that was next to the house and walked to the kitchen through the window, we didn't have to worry about being dirty because we were so careful that were perfect, my white blouse had remained white and even my bare feet weren't that dirty.

"Bella! Hi." Alice said as soon as she entered the room and without warning or invitation gave Bella a hug.

Rosalie was wearing her ever-present frown and Emmet was by her side, Carlisle and esme were on the other side of the kitchen table. Suddenly, the smell of bacon reached my nose and I realized they were cooking dinner for Bella.

"Bella, this is Alice." Edward said looking at Alice. Bella smiled and went to say something but Alice pulled away and beat her to it by saying :

"You do smell good."

Everyone froze and simply looked at the two girls in the middle of the room; I took a step closer just in case.

"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt her. We'll be best friends." She giggled and I gasped.

"She's not suppose to know that!" I exclaimed at Alice, making her smile.

"You already know Mia and that's Jasper."Edward added, signaling to me and Jasper.

Bella smiled at Jasper, who simply stood there—awkwardly and uncomfortably—and said hi.

"Forgive him; jasper hasn't been on our diet as long as the rest of us. It's harder on him." Carlisle spoke up and jasper nodded.

"Don't worry Jasper—" Alice started, going to his side and smiling up at him.

"You won't hurt her." I finished, going to his other side.

"Okay…" Edward said and Esme giggled, she had obviously seen we had done that to bother Edward.

Well, if this continued like this, we were about to have fun.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: so, new chapter. two chapters until New Moon! am I the only one excited about that? btw, I forgot to do the ****_Disclaimer_****. ****_You all know this does not belong to me, all characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, except for Marie Antoinette and her family, and of course other characters I add later on. _**

**__****_Chapter 8: My Story is not a Happy One._**

We didn't really have fun, at least not us anyway—I bet Edward and Bella had a lot of fun together—so I decided to retire to my room and look over the box Michael gave me.

Alice and jasper were sitting on the couch downstairs reading a novel, Esme was redecorating one of the room upstairs, Rosalie and Emmet were undoing the jeeps motor or something—I swear those two undo and do the jeep just for the fun of it—and Carlisle was in his study doing…actually, I've never known what he does there… anyway, Edward and Bella were on Edward's room but then went out to the woods—oh, the wonders of having supernatural hearing! Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to know this—and all that just left me alone, like always; the only difference now was that I actually didn't want to be alone.

_Stop moping._ I scolded myself and put a video on. This video was of me on the store's recording studio singing, I had a pink poodle skirt and a white long-sleeved shirt, my hair perfectly combed in a high ponytail, and my lips with red glossing shined and my eyelashes had a lot of mascara on.

"Wow, is that you?"

I slightly jumped and turned around, ready to pound at whoever the stranger was, just to find a very shocked Bella Swan on my door. I had been so into my thoughts that I hadn't heard her go up the stairs.

"Sorry, you startled me." I apologized and gave an affirmative to the last question.

Bella sat with me for the rest of the video—around 10 minutes—and said she had loved it so I gave her one of the CDs that had me recorded.

"I can't have this. It's yours." she said and I shrugged.

"I've got thousands of those, really."

"Did you have a good time tonight?" I asked her curiously. She blushed and I smiled, already knowing the answer was yes.

"Yeah, actually I'm going with you guys tomorrow. We're playing baseball?"

Oh, right! Tomorrow there's an electric storm coming and we'd be able to play, baseball was the only sport all of us liked so we'd decided to make it our sport and we'd play it whenever we could—that time usually being when a storm was coming because we were so loud it seemed like thunder—and I was really excited about it.

"Mia? Remember in Port Angeles when you said you were a hybrid?—can you elaborate on that?" she hesitated but finally asked.

Honestly, it took her longer than I'd thought to ask and the moment she appeared on my door I knew it wasn't because of my singing. But something had stopped her from asking before, maybe it had been Edward—too scared of my maybe killing her if she asked the wrong questions, that he had told her not to ask.—or maybe she had taken the 'I'll tell you later' part by heart and didn't know when was save to ask.

I took a moment to think what to tell her, I decided not to tell her everything just the essential so she'd understand.

"All right. Well...Umm… where do I start? I'm a witch—you probably already figured that out—and I'm also a veela and my sister and I were the pharaoh's daughters and...Um… that's why I'm a hybrid." I smirked at her confused look, knowing that had explained nothing at all.

"What—how—I don't understand. You were Egyptian? Aren't Egyptians supposed to be tan?"

"No, you see the natives of the area were but we—the people with power—weren't. The natives let us rule them and with our knowledge, we created the biggest civilization ever known… until the Romans came along, that is." I smiled and got up from the bed and went to the window, it was a beautiful day out: the clouds were there, of course—this was Forks after all—but they covered the area and gave the woods a dreamy sensation, making it call to me and I almost answered, almost.

"What's a veela? I've never heard of it before."

She snapped me out of my thoughts and I sighed. "You know mermaids, right? Well, they have powers and they were able to stop living underwater to live in the land… like _The Little Mermaid_? Just like that but without an expiration date."

"So Veelas are mermaids with legs." She finished and I nodded.

"We have the same characteristics mermaids have and—when needed—we can change our legs for fins. I've only done it once and it was really weird." I shuddered at the memory and Bella slightly laughed.

"Being a veela must be so cool." She comented.

I snorted. "Are you kidding? We're awful. Do you know what our main meal is? Human flesh and blood. I'm in the top of the food chain while you're in the bottom! And Edward is simply in the middle. Everything about me is supposed to make you curious. Why do you think all the guys fall for me? Because I'm charming?" I inquired, angered. She remained silent and I continued.

"No, it's because seduction is the easiest way of getting want we want. That's why I'm so beautiful and why I can sing so well because it attracts men." My voice was raised by the end of it all and Bella's eyes had widened. I took in a breath and let it out and then did it again.

"Sorry. I've never really liked that part." I explained once I was calmed enough.

"It's ok. Can I ask you one more thing?"

I jumped on the bed and started bouncing in it, making us both laugh. I thought it was a little childish but I'd do anything to break the sudden tension that was, without any doubt, my fault.

"I love being interviewed!" I giggled and she laughed at me.

"Were you born an immortal? I mean how does that work? You simply stopped ageing one day or…"

"Of course not, silly! Nobody's born an immortal. No, you see, there was kind of like a war between vampires and us. So my father chose both me and my sister to fight against them; vampires have a weakness which is fire and Charlotte and I have the ability to control anything related with fire and water. Dad played with magic and the order of nature and made us immortal because if they were strong we had to be stronger; if they were fast we had to be faster and most importantly: we couldn't die." I elaborated, feeling relieved. It had been years since I had told anyone the truth. It had been decades, it had been centuries.

"So you can't die? No matter how hurt you are?" she wondered out loud.

"I can die but every time I do, I'll come back." I shrugged, enjoying how she reacted to the news.

"Ok, now that_ is_ cool!" she exclaimed and I laughed totally agreeing with her.

"Oh! And let me show you this—but please, don't freak out." I begged her and she agreed.

Suddenly, my eyes turned red and my canines got longer and sharper, veins under my eyes appeared. That was the face I had whenever I attacked someone, it was the face of real mermaids not the façade of beauty they have all the time.

Bella's eyes widened as she exclaimed:

"That is so weird! How do you do it?"

"You are definitely weird." I laughed, my face going back to normal.

We remained silent for a moment before Bella asked again.

"What happened to your sister? Edward said you didn't get along."

My smile automatically dropped and I rolled my eyes, trust Edward to not tell her who I am but to tell something completely personal.

"My sister saved me but in the process my parents with the rest of my siblings were left to die. She took me to a roman tribe of Jews, changed both our names and made me live there with her; I never forgave her but lived my life there any way and—eventually—even converted into Judaism." I said coldly and through gritted teeth.

I was starting to tell too much but I didn't care and yes, it was my sister's story and not mine but I was in it a lot and it wasn't like Charlotte was going to find out. Besides, I really needed to tell the truth and if I didn't say it now nobody would ever know.

"So you're Jewish?" Bella encouraged, probably realizing this was a touchy subject and that I was hesitant.

"Ha! No." I paused, not really knowing how to approach this subject. "God, you won't believe me! There was a family of three with whom my sister was much attached, who lived two houses down to ours. So my sister and I spent a whole lot of time with them, she had told them our little dirty secret so there was no need of lying about our age."

"Wait a second, you told them? Isn't that forbidden?" her eyes wide as she questioned me.

"Well, today immortality is something pagan and taboo-like but, in that time, immortality was very common. So…um… it was a married couple and their son, her name was Mary and his was Joseph. Can you guess the son's name?" I finished with a smirk on my face.

If she knew, all this would turn ten times easier and I'd be able to tell Charlotte's story without trouble; if she didn't…well, then I'd have a lot of explanation to do. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and thinking, you could practically see the wheels in her brain twirling and spinning and suddenly stopping as she came with the answer.

When she had her answer, her eyes went out of their sockets and her brows were lifted so high I thought they'd tangle with her hair; I knew right away she'd guess it right.

"You knew Jesus Christ! Oh, my god! How is that even possible!" she exclaimed and shook my shoulders.

"Ok, ok, ok, Bella stop shaking me!" she calmed down and looked sheepishly at me, her cheeks tinting a deep red.

"I didn't just know him, he was my best friend, but that was when he was my age and he was just a boy and nobody knew him as God's son. Then we moved and time passed and I totally forgot about them but Charlotte—well, she didn't." I paused; she was going to think I was definitely crazy.

"So you came back?" she guessed and I grinned.

"Yeah, but it had been 11 years and things were… different." I sighed and titled my head to the right remembering that time, it had been totally awkward.

"What do you mean?" she encouraged and I glanced at her.

The girl definitely knew how to force someone into telling a story, she asked the right questions without really sounding desperate for answers. She was good; I bet she got everything she wanted from her mom when she was little.

"Well, when we came back… he told us who he really was." I paused when I realized she was confused. I guessed she didn't see the problem in that situation.

"Knowing that a person really close to you, who you've seen grow up, is the son of God who came down to earth to save _you _can be a little weird, don't you think? I didn't know how to act around any of them but strangely Charlotte _did!_ I spent weeks not sleeping trying to figure out how she did that, until one day she finally told me. _She _was in love with _Him!"_ I exclaimed throwing my hands in the air. Crazy world we live in. I still couldn't believe how nuts my sister had been.

Bella's jaw fell open and she just sat there like that for 3 minutes.

"Holy crap!" We heard someone shriek and we both turn around to the door.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" Alice pouted as she made her way over to us and made herself comfortable.

"You're catholic... or were." I shrugged as if the answer was obvious, which kind of was.

"I don't follow, what does her religion have to do with any of this?" Bella frowned.

"My sister told him and got rejected, kindly of course but still and then everything else happened and he died and things went down-hill—but then he came back and no one believed us; the Romans are not very kind, let me tell you. I stayed with Mary and the rest of them for a while but then people started to persecute Catholics. I—I had to get us out of there, everything was a mess." I shuddered remembering.

This was why I never told anyone my past, because it made me feel bad and forgotten. Nobody remembered the two sisters who had been close to someone who was important enough to alter time, no one remembered the beautiful twins who were practically work-shipped in Egypt, and no one remembered the Persian beauty that lost her husband in war.

"Inever went back there again; if _she_ did I don't know. Things weren't the same between us, before all that Charlotte was sunshine with feet. She was always happy. I, on the other hand, was bitter as hell. That experience changed us; you have no idea of how much." I added with a roll of my eyes.

Alice was looking at me with curiosity and Bella was looking around my room until her eyes fell on something on the wall, it was a little Virgin Mary, I smiled. _Ten bucks she judges me._

"And now, is the other way around." Alice stated smiling.

"I don't understand something, though. If she was that important, how come no one knows who she is?"

Bella was clearly confused with this matter and I was starting to regret telling her.

"Everyone knows, they just know her as Mary Magdalene." I exclaimed.

"The prostitute!" Alice exclaimed.

"Alice, she's still my sister. And she is not a prostitute." I scowled.

"No wonder you didn't tell me. She isn't exactly liked by the religious people." She explained to Bella. I simply shrugged.

"I'm guessing you're catholic, then." Bella taunted and I laughed.

"I was but I'm not really sure now. It's been a while since I've set foot on a church. And when I say a while, I mean a century."

Alice pushed me with her shoulder and scowled.

"What? It's true!" I exclaimed, surprised at her shoving.

"You should be ashamed." She murmured and I rolled my eyes.

"When was the last time_ you_ went to church?" I asked, knowing I got her there.

She opened her mouth and closed it again; she repeated the process two other times before turning to Bella and asking:

"So Bella how's your life?"

Bella looked surprised but answered any way and we spent the rest of the day talking about her and school, Alice was so excited because she had got her wish: talk to Bella, her soon to be best friend and sister-in-law. The conversation was soon turned into fashion and when Bella was asked if she'd rather use a summer dress over a pencil skirt with a blouse, she didn't know how to answer.

"She doesn't speak Prada, Alice." I mused and Bella turned pink.

"How? She's dressed nice." Alice asked me.

"That's because I told her what to wear." I smirked. "She doesn't even have skinny jeans."

Alice gasped and Bella went from pink to red in a millisecond.

"Yeah, sorry." Bella truly looked sorry, I laughed.

The aura around us turned a little awkward and I could tell the three of us were trying to find something to talk about.

"Ok, we talked about your life, mine is boring so… what about yours? What's new?" Alice taunted me and I flushed.

"Nothing."

"She has a new boyfriend." Bella sing-sang, obviously getting back to me.

"He's not my boyfriend." I pouted making then laugh.

"Yet, I swear this morning you two were sitting so close I thought you'd sit in his lap and let him kiss you senseless any minute." Bella accused.

"That's why you wanted to play games!" I exclaimed, giggling.

Bella left at ten o'clock and Edward went with her, Carlisle retreated to his studio and Esme sat with Emmet to watch a movie, Rose and Alice were discussing my wardrobe and how troubling it was that I haven't changed all the clothes for new ones in the last 4 months and jasper was reading a book, all that left me to my thoughts.

I cherished the moments were Edward wasn't present because they allowed me to think without my thoughts being answered or questioned; the only problem was that those moments weren't many. I liked spending time with Edward but I also liked keeping things to myself.

My thoughts soon went to the future; since Bella arrived I had only had three visions and multiple bad feelings.

First, I had had the vision about Bella dying or almost dying. The date of this event, I didn't know it. The reason of it, I didn't know it. I was certain of it happening because of her relation with us but, who'd do it? Rose? No, I didn't think so. In it, Carlisle said something about some James biting her which means none of us had nothing to do with it. Then why will it happen?

Second, there had been the vision about Jacob and me. I was wishing it wouldn't happen, I really like Jake and I didn't want things to end badly. According to my visions, things _were_ going to end and badly. Bella was right, today we had been sitting so close our knees were touching and even though I hadn't told anyone, I couldn't wait for him to kiss me but I had a rule: I don't kiss anyone until the fifth date. We'd only gone out twice. In the vision I had hurt him, I wonder how? Had I cheated on him? No, I'd never do that. He was the one with the problem, he said 'it's not you, it's me' and them something about not being good. The phrase 'It's not you, it's me' had been used by me so many times, I had practically invented it and the fact that I'd be use on me? Bothered me a lot. Maybe jasper was right, maybe I have to change it. Perhaps, I was already changing it by being with him now? I really hope so.

The third vision, however, worried me immensely. It was about the three vampires that were terrorizing town and how the police was trying to haunt them down. I prayed everyday for them to leave town before anyone else died, especially before Charlie died. He was the sheriff and was one of the guys haunting them and the last thing we needed was for Bella to lose a parent at the hands of a vampire.

"Mia, why don't we play a game of chess?" Jasper suddenly interrupted my course of thoughts, obviously sensing the stress and frustration coming off of me.

"Sure, let's do it."

Jas and I played chess for two hours straight, each game lasted around half an hour, meaning we played four games and we ended even.

"I'm so tired. I'll win you tomorrow." I yawned.

"All right, good night." I gave him a kiss on the cheek and made my way to the sofa.

"Bye, Emmet." I said as I high fived him. "Esme, good night." I smiled at her and also kissed her cheek.

Then I did the same to Alice and Rosalie, receiving a hug from Alice and a simple nod from Rosalie. From where I come from, we had a tradition were we kissed and hugged good night every member of the family. I brought that tradition with me.

Knocking on the studio door I said:

"Carlisle? I'm going to sleep."

He opened his door and smiled at me.

"All right, good night. Have a good night sleep, tomorrow you'll need to be awake if you want to win."

"I'll beat you." I laughed and made my way over to my room.

That night, I didn't have a peaceful night sleep like I wanted. No, I kept having visions and visions, and those visions? They weren't pretty. There was blood and fighting and … and wolves? No, they were too big. I think I also saw Jane, _that's_ never good. there was also a cliff and someone was jumping off of it, I was also kissing Jake—meaning we would be together—but then there was also a whole lot of crying and Charlotte was also here. A wedding, maybe? Not sure about that one, though.

I woke up with a halt and looked around, the clock read 5:30 A.M. perfect and I was supposed to sleep! I lay back on the bed and looked at the roof, silently thanking God Edward wasn't home and he hadn't been able to see my visions by reading my mind.

_ "Guess you really did it this time…"_ I sang; if I couldn't sleep might as well do something useful.

"_Left yourself in your war path_

_Lost your balance on a tight rope_

_Lost your mind trying to get it back_

_Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days?_

_Always a bigger bed to crawl into_

_Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything?_

_And everybody believed in you_

_It's alright, just wait and see_

_Your string of lights is still bright to me_

_Oh, who your are is not where you've been_

_You're still an innocent_

_Still an innocent_

_Did some things you can't speak of_

_But tonight you live it all again_

_You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now_

_If only you had seen what you know now then_

_Wasn't it easier in your firefly catching days?_

_When everything out of reach someone bigger brought down to you_

_Wasn't it beautiful running wild 'til you fell asleep?_

_Before the monsters caught up to you_

_It's alright, just wait and see_

_Your string of lights is still bright to me_

_Oh, who your are is not where you've been_

_You're still an innocent_

_It's okay, life is a tough crowd_

_Thirty two and still growing up now_

_Who you are is not what you did_

_You're still an innocent_

_Time turns flames to embers_

_You'll have new Septembers_

_Every one of us has messed up too_

_Minds change like the weather_

_I hope you remember_

_Today is never too late to... Be brand new._

_Lost your balance on a tight rope_

_It's never too late to get it back."_

My voice trembled at the end of the song because of the truth and emotion behind those words; things were so much better before, back when I didn't know anything.

_All right, what now? _

I got up and stretched, making my way to the bathroom. I was too scared to go back to sleep, what if I had another vision? So I stripped and took a very long and relaxing bath. An hour later I was dressed and sitting in my dresser, looking at the mirror while I brushed my hair. Back in the 1900's we had to brush our hair until it was completely dry. The pros? It ended up completely straight, I mean like Japanese straight. The cons? If your hair was too long, it took hours to dry it completely. So here I was, already 7 A.M. and half of my hair was still wet. Another hour passed and finally my hair was 100% dry. Around 12:30 P.M. all the Cullens—except for Edward who was with Bella—and I were at the clearing in the middle of the woods. We were warming up to play baseball, honestly I preferred football but they didn't so.

When Bella and Edward finally arrived, we positioned ourselves in our places and the game started. I was in the second base, not really paying attention to my surroundings, but to what was far away. I didn't know why but I felt extremely cautious this morning. I would jump at the slightest noise and would always look around for something unusual. I knew something would happen today, I just knew. And, if my intuition wasn't enough, this morning after getting dress, someone appeared to me. Someone who was _dead._

_I was putting on my _keds_ shoes when I finally left my walk-in closet, and put my hair in a high ponytail._

_"Good morning, my queen. Did you sleep well?" a sweet voice said from the piano._

_"Good morning, Angelica. Just fine, thanks for asking." I said in a superior voice while looking in the mirror and putting on my mascara when I froze._

_Angelica? As in my hand-maid angelica? That was impossible, she was dead._

_I whirled around on my seat so fast I got dizzy but I didn't mind because the shock was too great. There, standing right in front of me, was a red-headed young woman—in her mid twenties—with olive skin and dark eyes. Her hair was in a low bun behind her head and she was wearing an 1800's maid's dress. _

_I had spent so many years being Queen that having this conversation was a routine to me, hence I hadn't realize how wrong that conversation had been. Neither had I considerate it strange. But now that I was fully aware I wasn't in the 1800's, I almost had a heart attack. What, for everything that's holy, was she doing here?_

_"A-angelica! Dear lord! What are you doing here?" I asked her._

_The moment I acknowledged her she sat up straight and smiled, she had been sitting on the piano seat and looking around._

_"You have a nice new home, ma'am. And to answer your question, I've been sent by Him to you." She said with her angel-like voice._

_She didn't look like a ghost or a spirit—all scary or transparent—no, instead, she looked exactly the same before I left. It was eerie._

_"I see… and why is that?" I hesitated._

_If what He wanted to tell me was important enough to send someone dear to me, it couldn't be good. it almost angered me though. What a coincidence that the day after I decide to admit I have faith, he sent me a message. _

_"He wants me to deliver a message. There will be great changes in your life. Great dangers, as I'm sure you've already discovered from your early visions, and also great happiness and sadness. Beware of the unknown, but most of all don't loose faith. It'll all work out." She explained to me, a small smile on her face._

_I was looking agape at her. How the hell was all that going to end well? And don't loose faith? How many times had I kept my faith intact and, yet, nothing had worked out? That wouldn't solve anything._

_"Don't fret, ma'am. He knows your faith's been wavering lately and wanted to warn you. Personally, I'd like you to see this as a test." She consoled me._

_"I'll keep it in mind." I whispered furrowing. She looked up like if someone were calling her and then turned back to me._

_"I must go, I'm needed elsewhere. Good bye, my queen, and good luck. Your family and I'll be looking after you." she vanished right in front of me._

_As I crouched to the floor to pick the little mascara bottle which had fell to the floor, leaving little drops of black on the white wooden floor, I couldn't shake off the feeling that maybe this message was intently directed for today._

"Mia!" Someone shouted, snapping me off my thoughts.

I looked around to see what the matter was but couldn't vociferate my confusion because a ball hit my head.

"Ouch! Who did that?" I groaned as I fell on the ground.

Carlisle rushed to me while the rest scowled at Rosalie for not looking where she was swinging the ball to.

"Are you ok?"

I was about to answer when I had a vision: three people, no, three vampires were walking towards us.

"Fine." I paused and got up. "Guys, stop!" They all did as I said and gathered around us.

"They're coming. They were leaving when they heard us!" Alice worried and all the eyes turned to Bella.

Oh, no, Bella. These people wouldn't be pleased if they saw us with a human girl, let alone if that girl was still alive and with a really good scent. Even _I_ could smell her.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9: A Big Bad Vampire.**_

"It's so hot here…" I whined as I fixed my hair into a ponytail.

"Could you please stop complaining about everything?" Alice exclaimed from the other side of the room.

"I could, if instead of being stuck in a fucking hotel room I were on my pretty possible date with a very cute guy." I spat back, rolling my eyes.

"Sorry to break it up to you but you two won't last, girl." She spat at me, rolling her eyes, and completely shutting me up.

Jasper glanced at me from the couch with a sympathetic look while Bella simply looked through the window. Alice and I almost never fight but when we do, it gets ugly. We insult each other and don't talk for weeks. Once we didn't talk to each other for 5 years. I'm guessing you're really confused right now, so let me explain:

After we encounter the three vampires who caught us playing baseball, let's say things didn't go well. James decided it'd be fun to try and kill Bella which got us all angry and we confronted him. That was a great mistake. James happens to be a tracker and the hunt is his passion so now, he's currently tracking us down waiting for the best opportunity to kill us all. Alice, jasper and I had to run off with Bella to Phoenix were she used to live, while the rest of the family tried to both confuse and kill James. Yeah, good luck with that. Anyway, Bella had to break her father's heart in order to get out of Forks and she is extremely anxious and scared. I wouldn't be so cranky if it weren't because of the fact that the day after we left I got a phone call from Jacob asking if we could go out on Friday night (today) but I had to tell him I'd gone to Riverside (I couldn't tell him where were we exactly going) for personal reasons and that I didn't know when I was going back home. The personal reason being I didn't know if any of us were going to make it out alive. Of course I couldn't tell him that, he's an innocent boy who lives in darkness whenever it concerns the true wickedness of the world, but he got angry. That bit I know and how couldn't he? We speak everyday, we go out together, we flirt, and we tell each other things we don't tell others…. We're practically dating, all he had to do was ask! But I didn't tell him I was travelling and now, he probably thinks I ran away to California to meet with my famous boyfriend or something; no wonder Alice says we won't last!

My thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of Bella's phone which she picked up immediately.

"Hello? Yes, ok, I understand. I will. Edward? I love you." She hung up after that and turned around to speak but Alice cut her out.

"The tracker changed course, he's coming here and we need to get you out of here. You'll meet with Edward and he'll take you somewhere." She recited, almost like a teacher talking to the class.

"All right. Let's check out, then." Jasper muttered a frown in his beautiful features.

I didn't say anything as I got up and lifted my cell phone off the coffee table or when I reached the door and opened it for the guys to go through. Bella looked at me with sad eyes, she wanted her best friend back; that made me want to cry and say "it's ok, it's not your fault" but, honestly, I couldn't bring my selfish self to do so; Alice didn't even look at me and Jasper, Jasper simply mouthed a "it'll all work out" that made me have a strong déjà-vu. Hadn't those been the exact same words Angelica had said to me? Well, I'd love to know when that was happening.

Once we were in the hotel lobby and jasper was with Bella checking out, Alice decided to talk to me.

"Come with me." she said and I followed her, not really wanting to ask where to.

We walked out of the hotel, far enough for Jasper not to hear, when she suddenly hugged me surprising the hell out of me.

"What the…?" I started.

"I'm so sorry, Mia. It's just I'm really worried and you weren't making it any easier but I know you're just upset, but I love you and what I said I only did to bother you. I don't know if Jacob and you'll last but I hope you do and I hope we'll make it out of this mess. Will you forgive me?" she spoke extremely fast, obviously wanting to go back to the safety of the hotel, afraid we'd be heard by the wrong ears.

"Don't worry Alice, I forgive you." I warmly smiled at her and looked at the hotel.

"We should head back." I commented and she nodded, already walking towards the hotel.

An hour later we were at the Phoenix airport, ready to take a plane to god knows where—I really couldn't bother to know—when suddenly Bella said:

"You know what? I gotta pee. I'll go to the restroom."

She left before we could even say something, so I just ignored her but the minutes passed and she wouldn't come back.

"I'm gonna go check up on Bella." I announced to Alice and Jasper, who looked at me and nodded.

I quickly made my way to where the restrooms were and pushed the door open. Saying the room was full was an understatement, I couldn't even see the blower on the wall, or the soap dispenser either. There were so people lining up for the stalls that it was really hard for me to make my way through.

"Bella? Bella, where are you? Bella, are you even here?" I kept asking and asking, trying to be heard over the loud sound of the restroom. There were loud laughs and constant chatting and murmurs and the sound of toilets flushing and running water and it all was way too annoying.

"Everyone shut up!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, making the poor ladies who were next to me cover her ears and the rest of the women go completely quiet.

"Thank you, now. I'm looking for someone. She's about this height and has long wavy brown hair and brown eyes, she's really pale. Have any of you seen her? Her name is Bella."

The women look at each other questioningly and then around the room. A dark-skinned brunette, who was dress in what I like to call a fashion tragedy, stood forward and mumbled:

"She was here around ten minutes ago, she entered through the door, looked 'round and then immediately left. Why?" she was obviously trying to get some juicy gossip out off me so I simply nodded my head and left.

When I stepped out of the room, I realized something: this wasn't the same gate I was in before. This was gate 1 and I had been in gate 9 which was on the other side of the airport; I walked around trying to see if Bella had gotten lost as well, when suddenly everything went white and I'm not in the airport anymore, I'm back at the hotel.

_"No, don't do anything to her! Yes, I'll meet you, just don't hurt her." Bella said to the phone and I frown, walking towards her._

_There was a frown in her face and she looked very worried. We're at the lobby, and she's whispering to someone through the phone._

_"No, no one will follow me. I'll escape." Se hang up and turn around, walking to where jasper, Alice and another version of me were._

Now I'm back at the airport and somebody just ran into me, knocking me to the floor for the second time in the last three days. The person, a guy around my age with blonde hair and green eyes, kept telling me how sorry he was but I'm not paying any attention. Bella was going to meet the tracker and to do that she had to escape. She knew the bathroom had two doors and she obviously used that as an advantage, she's probably already meeting with the tracker.

_And to think you could've stopped it._

My vision. Oh, God, the first vision I ever had of her. It was about this, the tracker is the oh-so-mention James we were talking about on my vision and now Bella is probably going to die. I completely ignored the stranger and ran back to the bathroom and pushed the other door, the one I came in from.

"Alice! Bella she—"

"I know Edward, she just tricked us and—no, I don't know where she is… don't you yell at me Edward! I tried my best, not even once did I tell her about any of my visions and—" She said into the phone.

Alice was talking to Edward on the phone and I guess she had a vision about Bella running away, Jasper had a comforting hand on her back and she looked really distressed. The minute I realized what was going on, I walked up to Alice and took her phone away.

"I know where she is." I felt two pairs of eyes pierced to my skull the minute I said that but I ignored them.

"She's going to her old ballet studio; James tricked her to believe he had her mother. Hurry, Edward, you can get him… it should take you around ten minutes to get there." I didn't even wait for him to acknowledge my presence; I simply gave him the address and then hang up.

"How the hell did you know all that?" Alice fumed at me but I just walked past her and towards the door, when I realized they weren't coming I turned around.

"Aren't you guys coming?" they hurried and soon they were already beside me. "The vision I had when we first met… it was about this. I should've realized sooner but I didn't and now we're in this mess." I exclaimed as we finally got out off the airport to the parking lot.

Once we were in the not crowded at all parking lot, we started running as fast as we could to the ballet studio, I was incredibly fast but—seeing as though, I hadn't run this fast and this much in a long time—got tired easily so I simply stopped and did the easiest: disappeared and appeared at the ballet studio itself.

The ballet studio was big, all of its walls with a big glass and the light-wooden floor neatly polished. but there was fire and glass everywhere. I turned around and gasped in the middle of the room was Bella in a pool of blood, her own blood, I ran towards her to find her gasping and crying, well at least she was alive.

Bella looked at me with pain in her eyes.

"Don't worry Bella, you'll be fine." I soothed.

"Carlisle!" I yelled, he was the only one who could help her.

Suddenly I felt a presence beside me, I turned around to see Alice holding her breath and shushing Bella.

"Carlisle, her blood!" Alice yelled, trying to keep control. She was right, there was too much blood even my eyes were starting to waver back to the blood more frequently that I liked it.

Carlisle came to us and checked on Bella and then Edward came, he looked devastated and I assure you that if he could cry he would've.

"James bit her, there's nothing we can do." Carlisle said calmly. How he did that, I don't know.

"No way." Edward growled.

"It's going to happen Edward, I've seen it." Alice said.

Her leg was bleeding the most which was worrisome and it also looked broken but the venom couldn't be too far in her body.

"You could suck it out?" they looked at me then back at Bella's wrist. "I can stop the bleeding in her leg for a few seconds while you do it, hurry up Edward—do it!" I ordered, seeing they all agreed but that Edward was still hesitant.

He automatically took her wrist and was about to put it in his mouth when Alice said something.

"How are you gonna stop the bleeding?"

I just shrugged and motioned for Edward to continue, as I reached my hand and put it above Bella's wound but without touching it, my hand slowly but surely closed into a fist and Bella's bleeding stopped almost completely. I could control the elements, especially water or anything liquid. Meaning I could control blood and that was exactly what I was doing. Mean while, Edward was almost finished and Bella had already slipped into unconsciousness.

"_hello?" _

My heart skipped a beat at the sound of his voice, it had been exactly six hours since the whole ballet studio accident and we were at the hospital, Bella had been induced into a comatose for a week or so before she could wake up fully recovered. Or as recover as one can be with a broken leg and a pierced artery, but anyway we had told her parents and they were on their way but I still hadn't told Jacob why I wasn't home yet, not that he really cared if I had survived the week, but still Bella was his friend and he deserved to know. So that's why I had asked the nurse for the closest phone—mine's battery died—and had dialed his phone number which surprisingly I knew by heart.

"Mmm, hi. It's Marie Antoinette?" I hesitated making it sound like a question at the end. Genius. Fucking. Genius.

The other line remained silence for a few seconds, making me believe he probably hang up on me, I was about to just hang up when he answered me.

"_Hi, I haven't heard about you for a while, weren't you supposed to come back two days ago or something?_" he said nonchalantly, but he obviously cared because otherwise he wouldn't have remembered when I was going back.

"yeah… something happened, I was—I was about to go back but then—Bella ran away, you know that, right? So, well my brother and Carlisle went to see her to convince her to go back home, when—when she… well, she fell down the stairs and then, kind of—kind of went through a window… so, yeah, I'm at Phoenix with her." I finished with a sign, there's no way he'll believe me. Even to me the story sounded weird.

This hospital was really nice; it was completely white of course and smelt strongly of disinfectant but apart form that, it was great. The nurses were really nice and kind, not even once had they told us to leave because Bella wasn't waking up any time soon or anything, it was almost like they understood what we were going through.

"_I'm sorry but it's hard to believe. Don't you think Charlie would have told Billy?" _ he said and I closed my eyes, scrunching my nose.

"Carlisle told him two hours ago, once we made sure Bella was somehow stable and we had something to tell her father; he's probably been looking for a plane ticket or something!" I exclaimed, outraged that he could actually think I'd invent some thing like this.

"_Well, maybe but I—" _he started but I cut him off immediately.

"I was telling you because, I thought you might have cared. If not about me but at least about Bella but you know what, Jacob? Fuck off." I hang up before he could say anything and slammed the phone on its place, burying my face on my hands and passing my fingers through my hair.

I'm usually very calm in explaining situations like this but I haven't sleep well in five days and my head is killing me and I'm worried about Bella and I really like Jacob and I just hate it when people don't trust me and I just want to go home.

"A fight with your boyfriend? Don't worry he'll realize you're right." A nurse who was behind the desk I was leaning in told me, making me look up.

She had straight short auburn hair and blue eyes, she was really skinny and looked a little bit tired—probably from all the work she had—and was smiling sympathetically at me. I hate it when people look at me like that.

"well… I don't think he'll come around. I mean, I came here without telling him because I wasn't really sure where we were standing and when I told him he got mad and now he just wont believe me because… honestly? Who the hell _does _falls down the stairs and goes through a freaking window? Only Bella can manage to do that." I blurted out, without the slightest idea of why I was confessing all this to a complete stranger. Maybe it was her kind face or the fact that she actually looked like she cared. Or maybe I just needed to vent.

"Don't worry, we all mess up but if he really wants to be with you, he'll come around. If not, at least you figured out he was an ass before getting too much hurt. Look why don't you go home and fix yourself? You're quite a mess. Besides if you leave, you'll get distracted" Even though, it was quite rude what she told me, she said with such a tone that it didn't even insult me.

I looked down at myself and realized she was right, my shirt was crumbled, my jeans were dirty, my white toms were a complete mess with brown spots because of Bella's blood all around and my hands still had a little bit of blood itched to them.

"Yeah, I'll go—thanks, for…you know, the phone and what you said." I scrunched my nose in disgust at how completely unappealing I looked and then tried to smile as kindly as I could at the nurse, before turning around towards Alice who was with the rest of the family sitting in another waiting room.

"hey, any news?" I asked jasper quietly as I approached him. Alice had a vacant stare and she was looking at nothing in particular, I knew she was in a trance trying to see Bella's future.

Rosalie and Emmet were here as well—Emmet wanted to see if Bella was all right much to Rosalie's regret—and so was esme and Carlisle. Rose and Emmet were sitting a few chairs behind us and esme was sitting next to Edward with a comforting hand wrapped around his.

"Carlisle just hung up on the phone with Bella's mother and now he's talking to her father, he hasn't been able to leave forks yet but he should be in about an hour. Bella's mother is already on her way." He shook his head and I frown.

"I'm gonna leave for a minute, get cleaned and changed and then I'll come back. Ok?" I reached out and hugged him for a millisecond, before remembering I had still a little blood on me and stepped away.

"sorry." I muttered.

He said it was fine and I quickly made my way out of the hospital to a friend's house. Caleb has been my friend for a hundred years now, he gave me a roof when I wasn't living with Carlisle yet and had renounced to the throne; I owed him my life and he was a very good friend as well. More like a very good friend with benefits but, a friend none the least.

"Caleb! Hi." I winked when I saw him enter to his apartment, I was already inside and comfortably sitting in one chair.

He jumped three feet up and then glared at me, one hand held high ready to take down whoever was where they weren't supposed to. Caleb was not only an excellent kisser but also a really good wizard; he had enough power to cast a spell on himself to age slowly, very slowly. So instead of looking like an old raisin, he looked around his mid twenties.

Caleb Payne was a tall fit guy with short dark brown hair and shiny green eyes. His personality was a complete disaster, however. He was stubborn, got angry easily, was always defensive about anything, sometimes he was mean, and the list can go on; but apart from that, he could be sweet and nice if he liked you. Luckily for me, he liked me.

"Oh, it's only you. What do you want?" he rolled his eyes as he lowered his hand.

"Oh, come on, Cal… that's no way to treat old friends and to think I thought you could help me out." I pouted as I stood up and walked towards him, a lock of hair between my fingers.

"I could have killed you back there, you know?" he murmured, slightly distracted by my teeth biting the soft skin of my lips.

"Please, like _you_ could hurt _me_." I smirked, touching his shirt slightly and watching his breathing get hitch. Only a little bit more and he'd be doing whatever I wanted him to do, I just needed to make eye contact. My eyes slowly roamed from his shirt up to his lips and the rest of his face until they reached his eyes, perfect.

"Now, will you help me?" I asked, getting him in a trance, he nodded. "Good, now I need you to get some of your girlfriend's clothes on the room and your phone charger and some money and you must allow me to shower. Ok?" I smiled sweetly at him and he nodded and went inside his room. I really felt disgusted with myself; I literally had to seduce an old friend for him to get me what I wanted. I definitely was turning into charlotte and that scared the hell out of me.

Twenty minutes later I was all cleaned and my phone was all charged and I was hugging Caleb goodbye. I called a taxi and went back to the hospital to find that everything was exactly the same, so I simply sat down besides jasper and rested my head on one of his shoulders, Alice on the other. Seeing as though I had showered and removed any sigh of blood form any part of me, he didn't have any problem with me resting my head on him.

My phone started to vibrate and I picked it up.

"what?" I snapped when I saw who it was. How the hell could he call me after everything he said?

_"…I'm so sorry, mia. Charlie just called Billy he said he was at the airport and—" _he paused and I remained silent before he started speaking again.

_"Can—can you forgive me? For being an ass since you left." _

"Yes, fine. You're forgiven." I sighed as I rolled my eyes. Yep, I was definitely whipped, there's no going back now.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10: Prom.**_

"Hey, hey, hey!" I sing-sang as I knocked on the hospital room door and walked in.

Bella had woken up about one week ago and she'd be able to go today, so I was visiting her to give her new clothes, beautiful and brand new clothes.

Edward was sitting next to her bed and she was talking quietly to him, knowing them they were most likely talking about how much they loved each other or something like that, Edward lifted his eyebrows at me when he read my thoughts and I simply rolled my eyes.

"I brought you new clothes, I chose them myself." I informed her happily as I sat on her bed, careful not to touch her injured leg.

"What was wrong with my old clothes?" She frowned.

"Nothing, I just wanted to give you something." I lied easily and quickly, not really wanting her to get offended.

She nodded and got out off bed—with Edward's help, of course—and took the bag with clothes from my hands. Well, someone's eager.

"I'm ready to go!" Bella beamed at us when she stepped out of the bathroom and we all got up to go to the front desk.

One week later and it was finally prom, Bella was on her way here with Edward and I had decided to ride solo—I didn't have a date, even though Alice said I would—and party like there was no tomorrow. I was currently talking to Angela who looked stunning on her light blue almost white dress.

"I cannot believe nobody invited you, I just—I mean look at you! You look stunning." Angela whined, Eric agreeing on a friendly way, of course.

I smiled at her and cocked my head to the side when I suddenly heard something that made me tense.

"… and I quote 'we'll be watching'." The voice—that'd become so familiar to me that I'd be able to here miles apart—said, followed by two awkwardly nervous laughs.

I turned around so fast I hit Eric on the face with a strand of my perfectly curled hair and looked straight to where the voice was coming from. A few meters away from me Bella and Jacob sat on a bench, talking. I started to walk towards them with a frown on my face, what in the name of Jesus was he doing here?

"…Jacob?" I asked when I was only a few steps away from them.

His head snapped up before I had even stopped talking and he made eye contact instantly while Bella looked at anything but us.

"Marie Antoinette, what…?" he started to ask but stopped himself, probably realizing he was going to ask something stupid like 'what are you doing here?'

In this tense and weird atmosphere that had created around the two of us for the first time since we've met, I realized something: this was the first time that we've seen each other since our little disagreement, so to speak, and it was awful. After I had forgiven him, we had talked, yes, but it wasn't the same. I wanted to talk in person so we could fix things and I knew he still felt awful and so did I.

"What are you doing here?" I asked smiling slightly.

"Oh, I came to talk to Bella for a minute but I'm leaving now." He said getting up and turning around, my smile fading immediately.

"Antoinette?" he said looking back at me. "You look beautiful; your date is a lucky guy." He told me furrowing.

Date? I didn't have a date… but he didn't know that. Was he this cold because he thought I had a date?

"What? Oh, no, no, no. I don't have a date, Jake." I said taking a step towards him. Bella awkwardly got up and started to walk quickly—or as quick as she could with a cast—towards Angela and Ben.

"You don't have a date?" Jacob asked confused.

I stepped closer to him and said:

"Nobody asked me" I paused and then decided to tell the truth. "But it's okay, the boy I wanted to asked me doesn't go to this school anyway."

He frowned for a minute but then smiled, showing me those dashing teeth of him.

"Really now?" He asked me taking a step towards me, he was about to open his mouth when someone whined.

"Oh, come on! Just stay and be her date, get on with it!" Alice said from beside me, making me jump. I closed my eyes embarrassed, and took a deep breath trying not to jump at Alice and kill her.

"Alice!" I exclaimed sending her a pointed look and looking at Jacob. "You really don't have to."

"Yes, he does." Alice said stubbornly and I mentally face palmed myself.

"Well, I want to." He suddenly said, making me spin around to look at him.

"You do?" I smiled biting my lip and he nodded his head, walking towards me and taking my hand in his, lacing our fingers.

Twenty minutes later and prom was already boring as hell. It had nothing to do with Jacob—if anything, he was making it bearable—but after one has gone to prom more times than any teenager should, it kind of got boring at the end. Then, the music changed to a slower one and all the cute little couples started to slow dance. Well this was perfect.

"Wanna dance?" Jacob asked me, startling me.

"Uh…sure." I slowly said, like it was painful for me to say the words.

We made our way to the dancing floor and I put my arms around his neck and he put his around my waist, it didn't take me long to realize he was not exactly the best dancer. But the fact that he tried was adorable.

"I—I wanted to apologize again for, you know—I should have believed you the first time and not wait for Charlie to call Billy." He started to say but I shook my head.

"Oh, come on! Of course you wouldn't believe me, I almost didn't believe it myself when Carlisle told Me." and it was true, I couldn't believe we'd be using such a pathetic and unbelievable story like that.

"But still, I shouldn't have been angry at you for not telling me you were leaving, because we're nothing, right? We're not together and we just fool around, right? And looking at our situation…" he said and my smile faltered a little bit, but he didn't notice.

I looked around the dance floor with all the happy couples dancing and having a good time, so this was it? He'd break up with me on prom, he'd end it all because he never really trusted me and I couldn't do anything because he couldn't know the truth.

"I…guess." I cleared my throat and looked back at him.

"Well, but the thing is—I don't want to just fool around." He said, taking a deep breath. "I like you, Antoinette, a lot and I don't want us to fight like that. We'd never fought, and I need to know that I can trust you and that you won't run after some other guy like I thought you did, so you can know that you can trust me because honestly? I'm not going anywhere." He finished and looked at me expectantly but I just remained quiet. I was speechless and to say that _I_ was speechless was something.

"Well, say something." He said nervously after a few minutes of silence.

"I'm not exactly good at saying something, but…that was…umm well it was…" I decided to shut up and stop rambling and simply do what I wanted to do.

I reached out and moved my hand to his neck and pulled him down towards me, kissing him softly, my eyes fluttering close and my heart hammering against my chest. We pulled apart after a few seconds and put our foreheads against the other's.

"So, what do you say? Want to go out with me?" he smirked and I laughed a bit.

"I wouldn't have a problem with that." I said before kissing him again, this time longer than before.

Little did I know that a very vindictive and hurtful vampire was lurking in the shadows, watching us and wanting revenge more than she wanted blood for her beloved James.


	11. Chapter 11

**_A/N: well, this is a little something before we actually start with New Moon. it's incredibly short but I'll update the next one tomorrow or thursday whenever I'm free. I'm actually excited about this, I've already written half of New Moon._**

**_Chapter 11: New Moon. _**

I used to believe I was the happiest girl in the world, I had everything I ever wanted: friends, family, a home and love. That was up until two weeks ago when everything went down hill, in some cases literally. Now, there's rock bottom, fifty feet of crap and below all that, there's me.

I don't know whose fault it was; maybe it was Bella's fault for jumping off a cliff or Edward's for going all suicidal about it. Perhaps it was Alice's for telling Rosalie about her vision or Rosalie's for being the nosy bitch she is and telling Edward.

Or you know what? Perhaps it was Jacob's fault, for saying I was crossing the line or even my fault for staying instead of leaving with all of them! But really? I don't really care whose fault it was and I don't what to know.

All I care about is that if one person of that list, including myself, hadn't done something stupid like they did, I wouldn't be here, sitting on my window, wearing _his_ clothes—because they smell like him—, seeing pictures of us and crying my heart out. Yeah, who'd say that one of the strongest girls would break down? I assure you my sister didn't expect it, hell _I_ didn't expect it! But it happened and to think everything just started seven months ago.

I, in all honesty, don't even know why I'm telling you this. Perhaps, it is because I promised I'd tell my story and all that crap but this is the present, not the past. Maybe I just need to vent, because come on! Why did I have to make that stupid promise to Carlisle? One little tip: don't you ever make a promise when you're happy. It just doesn't work. Now that I look back on it, I actually think it's not entirely my fault, he's the one who tell me not to call him again if I left and well I did; although, he was mad and you say thing you don't mean when mad—and he did look pretty devastated when I dropped the bomb on him, poor guy sure as hell didn't expect me to tell him that.

I'm guessing you're all pretty confused, so why don't I start from the begging? It didn't happen very long ago, like I said, and things actually started to go wrong on a day that was supposed to be a happy day: a birthday. This single birthday brought on a chain reaction so big, I'm still paying for it.

It's unbelievable how one day can change everything.


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: remeber that last chapter was narrated in present, and she started to talk about how it all strated eight months ago, this is the begining of the eight months.**_

_**Happy Birthday.**_

_Eight months ago._

"I can't sleep." I pouted to the cell phone even though I knew he couldn't see me.

_"Another nightmare?"_ he asked me, even though he already knew the answer.

I only called him this late when I had a nightmare. Well, they weren't exactly nightmares per say but I couldn't call him up and say 'hi, I'm just calling to inform you that I've been having visions ever since I could remember and that now they assault me while I sleep instead of when I'm awake.' That just wouldn't go right.

"Yeah, this one was worst than the others." I sighed, partly telling the truth.

He remained silent for a few minutes before saying:

_"Want me to go there?"_

I smiled and looked outside the window where I could clearly see Alice and jasper playing hide and seek—weird, I know—and Carlisle and Esme watching amusedly. Rosalie and Emmet were probably on the garage doing something with the cars or fucking somewhere in the city, Edward was with Bella. The house activity was extremely hyper for it being 3 A.M. in the morning, but these guys never slept so I guessed they were deciding to have some fun.

"As much as I love the idea, would you imagine Carlisle's face when he wakes up to find a boy on his youngest daughter's room?" I teased, directing the joke at Carlisle who I knew was listening to our every word and, at the mention of his name, lifted his head up and waved.

_"I'm sure I'd find some excuse_." He chuckled and I turned around, resting my back on the wall.

"Thanks, but I'll be fine. I only had to sleep for another two hours or so…"

_"Ok, love. Do you wanna talk about it over the phone?"_

I smiled at the pet name he usually gave me. I still couldn't believe I have been dating him for three months already, and not once have we fought. But I'm not stupid; I've been in enough relationships to know that the first 3 months of it are the easiest and sweetest.

"Nah, I'd rather forget about it." I mused and sighed.

"_Happy birthday."_ He suddenly said, making me laugh.

"You remembered? Thank you."

_"How about we hang out tomorrow? Just us." _He told me, chuckling slightly at my excitement.

"All right, but I have to be here by seven. Family dinner, I'm turning 18 after all." More like 3905, but that's not important.

Alice had planned a birthday party for Bella and I, it was more for Bella because well, I've had enough birthday parties for a life time but she said that if it wasn't also for me then she wouldn't accept it. It started at 6:30 but I could arrive a little bit later, and that gave me plenty of time to be with Jake. We decided on him picking me up at school and taking me wherever we wanted to go; he'd take me home afterwards. Or he'll leave me at the nearest street to my home, more likely.

Later that morning at school everyone decided to act like they were old friends with me and kept saying 'happy birthday' even though I hadn't even given them a second glance in my entire life. At lunch, Angela had arranged a small birthday party and our table was full of people I actually liked and even presents.

"Open mine, open mine." Angela jumped up and down excitedly and I laughed.

She handed me her gift and I opened it to find the complete series of the Sherlock Holmes books brand new.

"Oh my god! I can't believe you, thanks!" I squealed as I hugged her.

Then Mike gave his present which was a rock, when I asked what I was supposed to do with a rock this was his answer: 'you can hit all the idiots that try to get into your pants.' Then I reminded him he was one of those idiots and he simply acted all innocent about it. Weird, I know. Eric gave me a new Polaroid camera and Bella gave me a beautiful bracelet with the words _faith and love is all I need _cursively engraved, I put it on right away. Then the final bell rang and I literally ran to the parking lot, earning a few weird glances along the way.

"Jacob!" I yelled as I threw myself at him, starling him.

"Hi, Mia." He said as he composed himself and hugged me.

"Happy birthday… again." He frowned and I giggled. "I got you this."

He lifted his hand to show me a beautiful dream catcher that I immediately grabbed and studied closely.

"It takes away nightmares, thought it'd help you." he told me, snaking his arm around my waist and bringing me closer to him.

I knew this dream catcher wouldn't take my 'nightmares' away but the fact that he bothered to find one and gave it to me so I'd be able to sleep, touched me to the core.

"Thanks, I love it." I said, leaning in and kissing him softly.

"So, you ready to leave?" he asked once we broke away and I nodded, looking back and waving goodbye to Bella and Alice who were by Edward's car. Twenty minutes later, we were in sitting in the shore of the beach not really doing much but talking and it was perfect.

"What do you plan to do now?" Jacob asked me.

"Whatever do you mean?" I wondered out loud, truly curious.

He leaned on his elbow and looked at me with those dark eyes that made me melt.

"You're 18; you can do whatever you want now." He explained to me, playing with a strand of my hair and I let out an 'oh.' Of course, I was supposed to be 18. I should be babbling about how I'd leave my house and go through a rebel faze or something teenagy like that.

"I don't know—finish school? Go to college?" I told him, unsure.

"You want to go to college?" he furrowed and I bit my lip. Yeah, I'd go to college for the 50th time and study something I've probably already studied.

"Yes, you don't?"

"If I could afford it." He shrugged and I flinched. Right, Marie, remember not everyone's rich like you.

"Sorry… you could always get a scholarship." I tried to lift the mood but it obviously failed.

"I never thought college was my thing.—what are you going to study?" he shrugged as if it were nothing and asked me.

I looked out at the beach, the beautiful sun reflecting in the calm sea, the clouds high in the sky and for once it was not a rainy day. The words left my mouth before I could think about it.

"I'm studying art." I stated, still looking at the ocean.

"You paint?" he told me softly and I nodded.

"I'll show you one day." I muttered and then lean in to kiss his cheek.

"Ok, so I know you play the piano and that you paint. What else do I have to know?" he asked amused and I laughed a bit.

"I can sing… I love history…" _and I'm an Egyptian princess that's 3905 years old._ I added in my mind and looked down. I'd have to tell him one day or another but not now, I wasn't ready.

"We're so different." He laughed, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"That we are." I told him and this time he leaned in to kiss me.

We spent the rest of the day fooling around and making fun of some of the people in the beach that were obviously not from the reservation, I even sang a little bit, we played games, ate chocolate and at 6:30 we were heading back up to forks.

"I shouldn't be leaving you here." Jacob protested for the third time since I had gotten out the car.

"You'll get lost." I rolled my eyes and leaned into him, my arms around his neck and his around my waist.

"So will you." he stated and I scoffed.

"How long have I lived here for?" I asked sarcastically and he laughed slightly.

"I promise I'll be fine." I said. "Bye, Jake." I finished and kissed him lightly in the lips.

"Bye, Antoinette." He said and then got inside his car and left.

When I made sure he was far enough, I turned around and with a flick of my hand I had disappeared and appeared at the inside of my house.

"How was the dog?" Emmet joked and I rolled my eyes.

"He's not a dog! And if you must know… it was great." I said smiling at the memory and making Emmet laugh.

"You should go up stairs and dress before Alice kills you." Esme said, walking up to me and hugging me. "Happy birthday, dear."

I thanked her and made my way quickly to my room, thinking of what I'd wear and with a nagging sensation in the pit of my stomach that told me something was about to happen.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Chapter 13: A Handwritten Letter.**_

"Happy birthday, Bella!" I said as I hugged her when she made her way into the house.

I had changed into a gorgeous black lacey dress, straightening my hair so it reached my hips and doing my make up in a way that my icy blue eyes stood out; in a way or another, my make up looked just like the one I used back at the time. I had black eyeliner and brown eye shadow, accompanied with thick black mascara and shiny red lipstick; I truly resembled a real vampire. My incredibly high heels clicked against the wooden floor in a very annoying way every time I'd walk but I refused to take them off.

"Thanks, mia. But today is really your birthday." She raised an eyebrow. "mine was the other day."

"I know, but I've had 3905 other birthdays you've had only 18." I reminded her as I searched for her present.

Alice had organized the living room like a real place for a party, there were candles everywhere around the piano, near the window, in the floor; there was a place with a little food and to the left there was a huge table with all the presents. I went to it and grabbed mine and handed it to Bella.

"You'll love it, so no buts." I told her as I handed it over and pointed at her with one of my white fingers.

She opened the package and her eyes widen. I had given her a copy of Wuthering heights but it wasn't just any copy, no, it was the original first edition copy. One that Emily Bronte herself had given me; I had a thousand of those and I knew it was her favorite book so I gave it to her.

"I love you." she squealed as she hugged me and I hugged back.

Alice had given her the green knee-high dress Bella was wearing, so it was Rosalie's turn for presents. She took a rectangular box and gave it to Bella harshly.

"It's a necklace." She bluntly told her and I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks…" Bella said awkwardly. This was going great. An awkward silence followed and we all looked at each other, waiting for something to break the tension Rose had created.

"I already installed your present in the truck." Emmet said. "I thought a good music system could help that old piece of—"

"Emmet." I interrupted him and he stuck his tongue out at me. Yeah, he's really matured.

"Here open Carlisle and Esme's." Alice said, handing over an envelope.

Bella looked at it weirdly and Esme laughed quietly. "It's an airplane ticket to Jacksonville. We thought you're looking a little pale lately."

"Thanks, guys." She said as she started to open the envelope but Bella being Bella cut herself with it, making two drops of fresh blood come out of the wound and one of them fell on the carpet. Not only did her blood smell incredibly well but also none of the seven vampires had hunted in around two weeks, I could already see the problem.

Before I knew what was happening, Bella was being pushed towards the wall by Edward and he was pushing Jasper to the piano where he landed and broke it completely. That was expensive. Then Jasper was on his feet again and was charging towards Bella again but this time Carlisle and Emmet got to him and held him in place, Alice quickly put herself in front of Jasper trying to calm him down while Esme and Rosalie just stayed where they were, in shock.

I gasped and then hissed when the smell of blood reached my nostrils; this wasn't a drop of blood anymore, it was more than that.

"Edward." I said as I turned around to the image of Bella on the floor with her arm bleeding and the crystal vases, where the candles were, completely shattered around her.

I ran to where she was and looked at her arm, realizing that it had little pieces of glass inside and that I couldn't heal it without real medical help. Carlisle appeared at my other side and started to examine her arm.

"This is going to need stitches; I'll do it in my office." He informed us and looked around the room.

Emmet was taking Jasper out of the room and Rosalie was covering her nose with her hand. Esme and Rosalie walked out of the room as fast as they could in human speed and Alice simply stayed there looking at us ashamedly.

"I can't, I'm sorry." She finally said and left the room.

My eyes wandered to Edward who was at the end of the stairs, not breathing, may I add, and then back to the blood-covered floor.

"You should check up on Japer, he feels awful." I advised and he left the room.

"I knew a party was a bad idea." Bella said in Carlisle study while he took the pieces of glass off her wound.

"No, you simply didn't want a party." I said, pointing a finger at her.

"whatever." She muttered and Carlisle smiled a little.

"How do you do it without wanting to…?" Bella asked Carlisle.

He looked up from his work and his eyes wavered a little to where I was, I lifted my hands up in my defense and he looked back to Bella.

"Years and years of practice." He told her in his calm demeanor. "If I'm dammed I might as well spend my eternity doing something good."

Bella's eyes widened and I realized she didn't expect Carlisle to think this way. The Cullens believe that vampires are dammed, cursed to wander around the earth for eternity and to drink from what they came from. I didn't believe it, but it was not like I've got proof for them. I've never seen the spirit of a former vampire, once they were dead; they were gone, never seen again.

"You mean like without a soul?" she asked bluntly.

"Exactly." I jumped in the conversation. "I've always told him that it's not acceptable, that someone like him cannot be damned. If I'm not, he isn't either but—"

"But there aren't proofs, no vampire has ever shown itself to you after they were killed which means they're not in heaven." Carlisle interrupted me and I fell silent.

He was right; there weren't any proofs, anything that allowed us know that if one of them were to die, they'd go somewhere nice. I reached out and squeezed Carlisle's arm, sending a weak smile his way. He returned it but I could see it was strained.

"Marie, there's something here for you." Alice suddenly called and I excused myself.

I gave Bella a kiss on the cheek and muttered 'happy birthday.' making her furrow. Then I left the room, trusting Carlisle to finish the job without needing my help.

"What is it?" I asked once I was close to the door.

She handed me a small box and a letter addressed to me with a beautiful handwriting I recognized right away to be Charlotte's, my heart thudded on my chest as I fumbled with the box and opened it to reveal a waning crescent moon pendant; the edge of it was made of pure white gold and the center was made of blue topaz, real blue topaz.

My sister had one that was exactly the same but instead of it being a waning crescent moon, it was a waxing crescent and instead of sapphire, it was an amethyst. We got this when we turned 16 and our mother gave it to us, to show how sisterhood was more important than anything. I thought this was lost when we ran away from home, and now she was giving it to me.

"Mia, are you all right?" Alice asked, stepping towards me.

I looked up and blinked a few times so my vision would clear; I hadn't even realized I had started crying until she asked.

"I'm fine, it's just… I wasn't expecting this." I told her as I walked to the living room and sat down, ripping the letter open and unfolding it with shaky hands.

This letter was the longest my sister had ever written to me; a 'happy birthday number 3889, you're old!' card was normal, I sent her those all the time but apart from that casual acknowledge that we were indeed alive, we didn't communicate at all. I knew right away this wasn't just a happy birthday card.

_Dear sister,_

_I'm actually a little confused as to what to call you nowadays, is the term 'dear sister' acceptable? Or should I just call you 'dear Marie Antoinette', or maybe forget the 'dear' altogether? Now don't take this the wrong way, like I'm sure you are, because I don't mean to accuse you. On the contrary, what I'm trying to explain is how much we've changed in the last hundred years. We've gone through so much since we're kids, from turning into sensual immortals to falling for the wrong guy to ending up in the middle of nowhere with a whole tribute of natives hunting us down because we broke one of their rules. But it didn't matter in what kind of trouble we were because we always had each other's back; it drew us even much closer than we were. And even though I never admitted it, I was too busy trying to be bitter about all the things you did to protect me (just like you were as well), I loved having a sister like you; I loved every hour and minute of our adventures and I am so sorry that it had to end because of me. _

_Yes, I'm taking the blame here because what you did was awful but what I did was ten times worse; you do not turn your back on your sister when she needs you the most. That's plain cruel. So I'm apologizing, because you might have killed James and Lana but that didn't give me the right to kick you out. I met you first and you're family, I should've defended you or at least moved out with you but instead I stole your power and made you look guilty of something that was beyond your own. And because of my mistake, we've lost 90 years, years that we won't get back. I don't even know you anymore; I don't know who you are._

_So I decided to give you this necklace because, I don't know if you remember, but in two days is the anniversary of our escape, of the fall of our empire and I can't help but remember our mother's words the day she gave us this; 'sisterhood is the most important thing, doesn't matter what happens in the centuries to come, you'll always be together by this strong bond', somehow, I feel like we've betrayed her words and betrayed her memory. I told you these were lost, buried with the long lost memory of a once perfect empire but I lied. I had them with me all along and I think it's about time I give yours back to you (can you also forgive me for this?); considering I'm not even in your dimension, I don't know when this letter and present might reach you but, I wish you a Happy 3905__th__ birthday and I'd like it if it were possible for us to spend the next one together, like we used to._

_I hope you can forgive me and well, can you please write back? I'd like to know what's going on in your life._

_Love,_

_Charlotte Emmarette._

I was stunned and I didn't really know what to believe or what to think about this. Did my sister truly want to talk to me again? I missed her more than ever, once you've spent so much time with a person you kind of feel bad if you can't see them. I passed the letter to Alice and waited for her to read it, I didn't know what to think, I didn't know what to do or even what to write.

"You're going to forgive her, aren't you?" she asked.

"I forgave her years ago. How do I tell her that without sounding proud?" I nodded.

I forgave my sister months after she had 'kicked me out' of the dimension but never wanted to send a letter telling her so, my pride wouldn't allow it because back then I would've never accepted defeat and say sorry or tell someone I had forgiven them.

"Write back." She told me and hugged me. "I'm gonna go check on Jasper, all right? Give you some privacy."

She got up and went outside, leaving me alone in the big room. I searched for some paper and pen and started to think what to write, it wasn't much really but I figured it'd be ok for now.

_Dear Charlotte,_

_I think calling me 'dear Marie Antoinette' is all right, I don't personally like the term 'dear sister' it sounds old fashioned, which we are, but I'm more used to today's way of talking. And yes, you can keep the 'dear' part. I can honestly say your letter surprised me as much as the necklace made me melancholic; I've spent the last 3 hours trying to figure out what to write, it's four A.M. now and I have only written four lines. Was it for you so difficult? _

_Anyway, I think I'm babbling now. The thing is, I do. I forgive you for everything you've ever done; I forgave you a long time ago but was too afraid to tell you because I didn't know what you'd think. Thank you so much for the necklace, it meant a lot to me and honestly? I had missed that thing like crazy. And you're right, we don't know each other anymore, and I also believed we've betrayed our mother, that's why I'd love to keep communicating with you, so please, please, please, please, write me back. (See? I even write like a 21__st__ century teenager.) You can tell me everything about boys, friends, work? I don't know anymore._

_Love,_

_Marie Antoinette Emmarette._

It took me four full hours to write that little letter and by the time I sent it, dawn came. I was about to go upstairs and try to sleep when I heard the front door slam. Making my way over to the front door, I saw a very angry Edward muttering obscenities under his breath.

The rest of the family followed me and once he realized we were all there, he turned to Carlisle and said:

"I won't let that happen again, that was a first and a last. We're moving out of here, find a cover."

Those two sentences were enough to send the entire house into complete riot, and Alice's and mine rage was so great, at least the three first levels of hell froze because of it.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Chapter 14: Goodbyes.**_

"What? No, no, we're not moving." I said quickly but Edward just ignored me, so I turned to Carlisle instead.

"Carlisle, we can't move again. You promised me that this time we wouldn't move until I graduated, please." I grabbed his arms and shook it until he looked at me.

"I have friends here and a life and I know it won't last forever but it was supposed to last until we all went to college." I pleaded.

"We have spent a lot of time in this one place; it maybe really is time for us to move." He started to say but kept quiet when I stared to shake my head.

"Besides, I'm not putting Bella in danger ever again, this was it." Edward said angrily.

"I think he's right, I mean she almost die with the James accident, what if it happens again?" Alice jumped into the conversation and I turned to her in disbelief.

"What?" I gasp. Outside the light breeze starts to turn into a strong one. "This is ridiculous! Bella isn't in danger because she's with us; she's in danger for even being alive! For her, walking to the bathroom itself is dangerous. Edward played with fate by saving her with the van, that was her time to go and now she'll be in even more danger."

Everyone remained quiet for a while and right when I thought they'd say I was right, they looked down at the same time. Meaning it didn't matter how much I yelled and cried we'd move out.

"Carlisle please, I don't want to move." I said with watery eyes but he shook his head.

"Do it for your brother, dear." Esme told me sympathetically.

"My brother? My brother? Let me tell you something, my brother has been dead for 2000 years and yes, I understand how for you this is your family but don't you expect me to act like just because he's my 'brother', I'm gonna deal with his crap." I hissed at no one in particular.

"This isn't my crap, Antoinette. And don't come at me with that story, we've deal with it for a long time I think is time you look for a new one." Edward said and that was all it took for me to see red.

The rain that had been going down a few seconds ago, now's a pour down and the lightings were illuminating the whole room. As my rage grew, so did the intensity of the storm but I didn't really care. Why did they have to do this? I was finally happy, I had friends, and I had love. Oh, god! How am I gonna tell Jacob about this?

"A new one? Really, Edward, you crossed the line." Jasper said as he made his way over to me and touched my arm.

"Marie, just calm down a bit, ok?" jasper told me as he tried to use his power on me. "You're about to create a hurricane out there."

I breathed in a deep breath and let it go slowly. Running a hand through my hair, I looked at Carlisle. "Ok, we'll move but we leave Tuesday so that I can at least say goodbye."

I left without another word, for the entire night I heard them talking about how things were going to go. Carlisle would say how he had gotten a new job offer in L.A., everyone except for me and Edward would leave tomorrow morning and we'd meet in Denali Thursday morning. That gave me exactly two days to say goodbye to everyone and how I dreaded it.

"Marie, what are you doing?" Angela asked the next day at school.

It was the end of the day and I was in my locker, getting all my stuff in my bag. Tomorrow I'd say goodbye to Jake and then I'd leave to Denali or simply leave. What I didn't count on was Angela catching me picking all of my stuff.

"Um, Angela I didn't see you coming—"I looked around making sure Bella was nowhere to be found. "Can you come with me? We can…"

"What's going on? You've been acting weird and only you and Edward came to school." She interrupted me and I looked down.

"Angela, you can't tell Bella, she'll freak out." I told her and waited for her to nod before continuing. "Ok, Carlisle got a better job offer and we're moving to L.A. tomorrow."

She blinked at me for a second before hugging me tightly. "You're leaving? But it's our senior year." She whined and I smiled a bit.

"Tell that to Carlisle. Can you believe that I went home yesterday to find most of my stuff packed? I almost fainted." I stretched the truth a little, making her gasp.

"He did that? That's awful."

"Yeah, but you promise not to tell anyone?" I asked her as we start to walk outside.

"Promised." She hugged me. "I'll miss you, please call." She requested and I found myself nodding before being able to think about it.

The rest of the day I did nothing but think about how I'd tell Jacob. I also packed my clothes but thanks to my magic that took me around ten minutes. When Edward got home, I went downstairs to talk to him. The others, true to their word, had left already which meant it was just the two of us.

"Did you do it?" I asked as I found him sitting in the living room.

"No, did you?" he asked back.

"I haven't talk to her." I said as I sat down next to him. "Or him." I added, knowing he wasn't referring about me talking to Bella but about me talking to Jacob.

He put his face in his hands and I sighed, putting a hand in his shoulder supportively.

"You don't have to do this, Edward. We can stay." I whispered gently, hating having to see him like this.

"Yes, I do. Because in that way, I'm protecting her. I love her, Mia and if something bad ever happens to her again…" he said, his voice slightly muffed by his hands.

"I know, love, but she's already in danger by being introduced to our world. Leaving her puts her in even more danger because she'll be unprotected." I replied softly.

"Then protect her." He suggested.

"I can't. Edward, I can't stay if you guys are leaving." I shook my head sadly.

"You don't have to stay, you can protect her through your visions if something happens you step in." he pressed and I found myself nodding.

"All right. I'll protect her." I leant down and kissed his cheek, getting up and walking upstairs.

It was time to do the call, even if it'd hurt me immensely I had to do it.

"Jake, hi." I said into the phone, breathing in.

"_hi, how are you?" _he asked.

"I'm… fine. Listen, can I go down to the reservation tomorrow?" I asked as I started to pace around my almost empty room.

"We need to talk."

It was around 5:30 P.M when I arrived at the reservation; Jake had school but had promised to call me when he got home. Ten minutes after he had called, I was at his doorstep. I was hesitant, nervous, and extremely nice which made him notice something was off. He didn't say anything, though; he let me rant and rant about stupid things and bombarded him with questions until around 7:30 I realized there was no point in pretending, I had come to tell him something and I owed it to him.

"Anyway, I wanted to talk to you." I sighed as we sat down at the same tree where he told Bella and I the story about the cold ones.

"You're breaking up with me, aren't you?" He asked.

I remained quiet for a second. Was I? It's not like we'd come back to Forks, especially if Bella still lived here and maybe if we did come back, he'd be too old to remember me; he'd have a wife and kids maybe even grandchildren and I'd be just a faded memory, some ex-girlfriend who was good and pretty but nothing more. I'd be one out of God knows how many. That's why instead of answering his question I said:

"Carlisle got a new job offer, down at L.A. and—well, he took it. I leave tomorrow on the first flight." I explained not looking at him. "They're actually already there; I couldn't get a ticket so I'm leaving tomorrow."

He remained quiet for a minute so I looked up to see what his expression was; he was looking over at the ocean and had a frown on his face. "And you're telling me now?" he asked angrily.

"I found out yesterday and then I called you." I said, looking down again. He sighed and pulled me toward him with his arm.

"Where does this leave us?" he muttered against my hair.

"I don't know." My voice sounded muffled by his chest. "I do know we're most likely not coming back. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." He sighed. "We can always keep talking."

"I suppose we can." I said to him although I knew that arrangement wouldn't last long.

We didn't speak at all for the rest of the evening and around 8:30 I decided it was time to go back home. He walked me to my car but I didn't make a move to get in. he signed and pulled a strand of my hair behind my ear, I had to look up to be able to look him in the eye; he had grown up so much it was ridiculous. I stood on my tiptoes and kiss him softly, savoring every second and knowing it was the last time I'd kiss him.

"I don't want you to go. You should stay." He mumbled and I smiled softly.

"They're my family, Jake."I told him, not missing the irony in my words.

"Yeah, I know." He mumbled, pressing his forehead to mine.

"Mon cœur sera toujours le votre." I said, smiling at his confused features. "Je ne vais pas te oublier."

I kissed him one last time, stepped back and opened my car door but he said:

"Wait, what was that?"

"I'll tell you next time I see you." I promised as I got in and started the engine.

"But you said you're not coming back." He retorted but I simply smiled, waving as I drove away.

Maybe I'd come back, maybe not. If I do then I'd tell him what I said but if I don't then he'll think about it and maybe one day he'll figure it out and always remember the girl who gave him her heart the day she was leaving perhaps forever. That night I didn't sleep at all, only played the piano for hours and hours to a no end. At seven A.M. I took my brown Longchamp bag—that had been magically enhanced so all of my clothes and personal things could fit in It.—and apparated to the airport of Denali, Alaska. The place was totally patched because there was a sudden snow storm coming up and all flights were cancelled, the small planes not being able to stand the storm. I should've felt guilty for creating a storm on my first day here and ruining everyone's schedule but all I felt was sorrow.

I met the Cullens and the Denali coven around 3000 miles outside the airport, deep into the woods where the coven's house was located. The Cullens took a hesitant step towards me but one single look froze them to the spot, I turned to the rest of the party and started walking to where they were; pointedly ignoring my family.

"Welcome, my friend." Eleazar said, handing me his hand for the taking.

I took it without hesitation and didn't even flinch when he embraced me in his cold hold. I stepped back after a while and smiled sadly.

"It's been a long time since you last came." Tanya followed and I had to force another smile. "But you must be cold, you need to come inside."

"I'm The Ice Queen, water freezes before me and light snow turns into solid ice at my touch." I told her coldly, walking inside the big house. "And by now you should know I'm never cold."

"We know, dear." Kate explained as I examined the house. "That doesn't mean we don't worry."

The house was big, two floors high and was furnished with mostly wooden furniture. The floor was covered by a thick dark rug and the whole place gave the person who entered it a homey sensation but to me it only gave me bitterness.

"Because—"Carmen started but I interrupted her.

"—you love me. I'm aware but, as of now, I want to go to my room." I muttered. "It's been a hard long day." I added, shooting the Cullens a dirty look.

"Of course, I'll show you to it." Irina, the only member of the Denali coven I didn't like, said.

My room was upstairs, while everyone else's room was downstairs, so I had some privacy. Note the sarcasm. The room had a double bed facing the window and a writing desk on one corner, facing the other window which was much bigger than the other. I threw my bag to the floor and flopped down on the bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to forget the vampires speaking downstairs.

The sound of a phone ringing brought me back from the sleeping land and I sat up immediately. _Incoming call from Bella Swan._ I stared at the phone like it'd bite my head off and hesitantly pressed end; Bella couldn't have any connection with us. That's what Edward wanted and for once I was going to do as he said.

"I'm sorry, Bella." I whispered to the darkness as I tossed the phone to the floor and closed my eyes. "But it has to be like we never existed."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Home, sweet home.**

The three months that passed were the darkest I had lived in a very long time, there was visual tension in the house and by the second week most of the Cullens had left somewhere. Rosalie and Emmet were currently on Africa, Alice and Jasper were spending a week in France and Edward was God knows where. He called once every few weeks but apart from that it was like he had disappeared. Carlisle and Esme were the only ones still in Denali and I knew it wouldn't be for long. Bella constantly called or sent e-mails even though I never answered and Jacob and I only talked once or twice a week, I was bitter and because of that I didn't want to talk to anyone. The only person I talked to was my sister, she had given me her phone number and I had called her the moment the letter with her information had arrived; after that it was like I didn't even have other people to talk to. Maybe I didn't.

"_Ok, almost four months into your prison. How's it going?" _she asked through the phone and I snorted.

"How d'you think?"—sarcasm in my voice.—"It's awful, Charlie, I swear if by next month things aren't better, I'm leaving."

"_Why wait so long? Ditch that place and go home, Mia_." She suggested and I found myself wanting to do as she said but there was only one problem: I didn't know where home was anymore.

"I can't stay in Forks, that's ridiculous and wouldn't make sense." I protested as I walked around the forest, my footsteps leaving trails in the snow.

"_Well, stay somewhere close and visit once in a while. Antoinette, you're obviously miserable there. Don't you realize what's happening? They have all left and soon enough Carlisle will leave too. They're practically leaving you alone; you can do whatever you want. You're the oldest of all of them! A queen, for God's sake!"_ she ranted.

"Former queen. You stole my throne, remember?" I laughed, she was unbelievable.

"_Oh, please, everyone knows you're still a queen in a way or another. So will you do it?"_

I pondered the question for a few minutes. Should I? I was really miserable here and she was right, I could do whatever I wanted. I could move to Seattle or Port Angeles and drop by once in a while. Maybe I could visit Bella and finally pull her out of the great depression she was going through and who was I kidding? I was dying to see Jacob again, although by now he has probably forgotten about me.

"Fine, I'll do it." I told her and she squealed.

"_Great, I already have somewhere you can stay. It's in Seattle, and don't worry you won't have to pass as a teenager and go to school."_

"Charlotte! I hadn't said yes, how did you do that?" I exclaimed.

"_Call it a hunch or twin telepathy."_ She laughed. "_So, ready to know your new life?"_

I laughed and shook my head, realizing that letting my sister into my life again was crazier than I thought. This was going to be interesting.

I knocked on the third door to the left and waited. It hadn't even past three seconds when the door open and a red-headed girl smiled at me.

"hi! You're Antoinette, right?" she asked, although I knew she already knew it was me. "I'm Bonnie, Charlotte said you'd be here by morning."

She moved so I could walk inside and, as I did, I noticed a bright bracelet on her left wrist. That could only mean one thing: Bonnie was a slave. And if she was a slave, she wasn't doing this willingly. As I took off my coat and put my bag on the floor, I glanced at her to find her looking at her bracelet.

"so you noticed, uh? Don't worry, I'm not being forced to do this." She explained as she took my coat from me and hung it behind the door. "I think it's an honor to have you, the queen, in my house." She giggled and I smiled.

I looked around the apartment and realized that it was a great place for it to belong to a slave. The living room was wide and had a big window that allowed us to see the whole city, the furniture was a combination of colors and forms that made me believe Bonnie was into modern art, two of the walls were white while the other was a deep purple. Even it sounded and looked crazy, I loved it. To my right was a door that must have led to the kitchen and to my left was a big spiral stair that led to the upper floor, where the rooms must have been.

"Miss Charlotte told me you want a fresh start." Bonnie told me, starting conversation.

I absentmindedly nodded as she led me up the stairs that indeed led to the bedrooms. The hall wasn't too big, it had four doors and Bonnie led me to the first one to the right. She opened the door and we both went in. the room was spacious and airy but it wasn't necessarily big; not that it mattered anyway, all I needed was a big window and the room had it. The walls were white and the floor was dark-wooded, the bed was queen sized and against one of the walls; right in front of the window, there was a light-wooded writing desk.

"I don't want anyone to know I'm here, Bonnie." I told her as I looked out to the clouded sky.

"I know, your majesty. Here's your information, now you're Melanie Harrison a 22 year-old-girl who wants to get out of her old small town." She nodded at me.

"Thanks." I told her and she left.

Even though I had come here planning to go back to Forks, it took me three weeks to finally gather the courage to go visit. I decided on Bella first, seeing as though my visions about her were everything but pretty.

"_Hello?" _Charlie picked up the phone and I hesitated for an instant. If he knew it was me then he wouldn't let me speak to Bella that was for sure.

"Um, hi! This is Angela. Can I speak with Bella, please, Sheriff Swan?" I imitated Angela's voice and crossed my fingers, hoping he'd buy it.

"Oh, sorry, Angela, but she's out. She's down at the reservation visiting Jake; those two have been spending a lot of time together for the last month and so." He told me.

The anger and betrayal running through my blood was enough for me to want to hang up on him now and go and yell at Bella, but then I had to remember that Jake and I weren't together anymore, at least technically. And if they were together then at least they were happy and wouldn't be haunted by Edward and mine's memory.

After thanking the sheriff and getting dressed, I decided to go visit those two. Two birds with a stone, so to speak. I apparated to my old house and went to the garage, not even bothering to enter the big white house. Inside the garage, I went for the keys to my silver BMW and got inside it, starting it and driving away. I was nervous the entire trip to the reservation, my heart hammered inside my chest and pounded against my ears, my hands were as cold as snow—something that happened whenever I was nervous or scared.—and there was a knot on my throat.

I parked in front of the red house and sighed, it took me at least a minute to finally resolve to turn the car off and another two minutes to get out of the car but when I finally did, I was in front of the three steps that lead to the door in seconds. The weather was windy and I was sure it'd rain later, I tried to calm myself. The last thing we needed was another unexplainable storm coming out of nowhere. I knocked on the door, a few moments later, Billy Black, on his wheelchair, opened the door. My smile faded as fast as it had appeared, and was replaced by a frown.

"You have a lot of nerve coming here, woman." He said and I looked down.

I thought of leaving but thought better of it; he wasn't going to make me feel like scum. I looked up to him again and made eye contact, hoping the incredible light blue of my eyes would somehow intimidate him.

"I want to see Jacob. Can I come in?" I hesitated before going to enter the threshold but he moved so I couldn't walk past him.

"You won't see my son again… or Bella, for that matter. I won't allow it."

My patience was wearing thin and I had to take in a deep breath before being able to talk again. Billy Black didn't even flinch under my gaze, he simply sat there daring me with his dark eyes, that were so much like his son's but at the same time so different, to do something about the situation. He was taunting me, and I was trying really hard not to fall on his trap.

"Listen, I understand you hate me but I'm not a vampire! You cannot stop me from being with him just because of some stupid grudge." I whisper-yelled to him, afraid that someone might hear.

"It's not because of who you are, it's because of what you did to us." He told me, his words being enough to cut me short.

I knew that by 'us' he didn't mean 'us' as in, my kids and I, but as in my tribe, my people. My heart started to race on my chest, if he knew what I did so long ago then that meant… no, that's impossible, because for him to know he'd have to got my book and he didn't because the leader of the pack was the keeper of the book. But, there was no pack; in that case, the leader of the tribe would have it. Was Billy Black the leader of the pack? Was that why he hates me? Because I 'betrayed' them and went to the Cullens for help instead of coming here?

"The past is past and I didn't come here to speak about it." I hissed. "I want—I need to see him."

He shook his head and didn't move an inch but I wouldn't have it, I tried to enter again but he moved so he was right in front of me.

"Since the day he started talking about you I knew you'd be a problem. When you left I though we'd be free of you." He told me angrily.

"Well, you thought wrong." I shot back.

By now both of our voices were raised and I was sure they could be heard in the entire house. I just wanted to see him, I missed him a lot. I hadn't realized how much before but now that I was here and I knew he was only two, maybe three, rooms away I was dying to see him even if he was with Bella, like Charlie Swan had insinuated, and had moved on from me.

"Of course I thought wrong!" he exclaimed, frustrated and incredibly angry. "Since the day you left I've had to deal with a depressed son. He hasn't been the same and it's your entire fault."

His voice has risen even more and I take a sudden step back. Jacob was depressed because of me. well, I did not expect that, was I really that important, did he care so much for me that he was still sad I left? I needed to fix it, now.

"Dad? Who's at the door?" Jake's voice reached us from somewhere inside the small red house and my head automatically snapped back up, my heart skipping a beat.

"No one son, go back to the garage." Billy called back to him, his voice had the commanding edge of a concern father and I softened a little.

"I think—I think I know them… or maybe not?" Bella said. The voice was too far for Billy to hear but my senses had no problem picking her voice up.

"Doesn't it sound familiar to you?" she continued and I stopped looking over Billy's head to make eye contact with him.

"Billy, please." I was begging but I didn't care. I hadn't traveled this long, caused my loved ones so much trouble to have a no for an answer. I wasn't going to be denied seeing Jacob Black.

"Antoinette?" Jacob said at the same time his father opened his mouth to speak, Billy Black closed his mouth shut and glare darkly at me but I wasn't paying attention to him, not anymore.

My blue eyes connected with Jake's brown ones, he looked confused but then a dashing smile made its way into his features and I couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Hi, Jacob." I waved at him awkwardly, not really knowing were we stood.

He took two strides across the room, Bella right on his tail, walked past his father and stood right in front of me. He was incredibly tall and fit, more so than when I left, and I had to look up to be able to make eye contact with him. He put a hand on my shoulder, my heart racing at the contact, and pulled me toward him, I hugged back instantly and laughed when he literally picked me up and twirled me around.

"Jake, put me down!" I laughed freely.

He did as I told him and didn't let go of me until he was sure my feet were securely on the ground. He smiled down at me and I could hear his heart beating a million beat per minute, not literally of course, and knowing it was me who did that made me feel way too good. I looked to the house's door, knowing that if I kept looking into his gorgeous eyes I'd do something crazy like kissing him, and I saw that Billy was gone and in his place was Bella Swan, looking at me like I was a ghost.

"What—how…?" she started to say but soon her eyes filled with tears and she lunched forward, embracing me with her trembling arms.

"How is it possible for you to be here? I missed you so much!" she cried and I had to fight tears of my own. I hated it, leaving and hurting people constantly.

"I'm so sorry, Bella." I muttered and, in a lower voice, added. "It was supposed to be for the best."

"Does he know? Is he—" she pulled away from me and asked, whipping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"No, I'm the only one here. They all believe I'm staying in Seattle for a month." I explained to her.

We went through the back to the garage where they spent most of their time, according to Bella. The place was kind of messy, in the middle of it was the rabbit, fully built, and to the sides were two bikes or what was left of them.

"You finished the rabbit!" I exclaimed, glancing at Jake.

He put a hand in the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly, and said:

"Well, yeah… I had to do something to keep my mind off you." Then he stopped, his eyes widening as he realized what he just said. Clearing his throat, he continued. "Then Bella came here with these. I've been trying to fix them for some time now. That one's almost finished." He signaled to a black one and I nodded, not really interested in the piece of metal but in the excitement in his voice as he talked about it.

Bella went to sit down in the front seat of the rabbit, leaving the door open and dangling her legs to the side so she was facing the open space of the garage where one of the bikes, the one that was less built, sat. Jacob followed her and sat down right in front of the bike and started to work again as Bella watched. I looked in awe. There was obviously some kind of pattern here and I realized with a pang that I didn't fit in it. Jake worked, Bella watched and they talked, maybe even joked around. Suddenly, Jacob looked up and smiled a pearly white toothed smile at me. _oh, that white smile._

"What are you doing? Come seat here." He patted the spot next to him and I went and happily sat down.

He then went on talking about how everything in the bike worked, and how it was very important that all the pieces were in good state. It was a much elaborated explanation and most of the time I didn't even know what he was talking about. I've never been interested in mechanics, to be fair; but hearing him talk about it, made me regret it. I would do anything, talk about anything if that meant he'd keep speaking, if it meant I'd be able to hear his voice. I realized then, that everyone's right: absence _does_ make the heart grow fonder. In that moment, seeing him smile and his eyes shine in joy, I cared about him more than I had ever cared about him. I cared about him more than when I left.

"What?" he suddenly asked and I laughed.

"What?" I repeated.

His eyes locked with my blue ones for a moment before he shook his head. "You're not understanding a thing I'm saying, are you?"

I blushed a deep red and it was Bella's time to laugh. I glanced at her, remembering she was still there, and glared jokingly at her. She had been watching us in silence for the entire time, her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. A small smile plastered on her face and amusement in her eyes. When our eyes met I could understand the message she was trying to communicate in an instant because it was the same my subconscious was giving me. _You are so over the edge, no going back now._

"You know what? I'll go to the bathroom." She said, still laughing and going through the door that communicated with the house.

"So, seeing as though you don't get mechanics," Jacob started, putting his arm over my shoulder like he always did. "What do you wanna do?"

Honestly, I wanted to talk. I wanted to know where we stood; were we friends, were we more. Was he willing to try again? But Bella was still here and it wasn't a conversation to have with her in the room. So I suggested my favorite thing to do.

"Let's put some music, and then we can be teenagers again." I wiggled my eyebrows and he laughed.

"As inviting as that sounds, Bella hates music." He frowned and I shook my head, getting up to retrieve my iPod and my small portable speakers.

"Really, Antoinette, she's not the same and music just creeps her out." Jacob said to me, getting up as well and walking to me.

"This one won't," I told him. "Trust me."

I searched through the playlists until I found one title _birds of a feather_, right under my _dancing mood _playlist. Jacob threw a puzzled look my way when he read the title but I ignored him and started to look through the playlist.

"I'm back…" Bella's voice trailed off as she walked into the garage and saw us over the speakers. "What are you guys doing?" she asked, curious. She then saw the speakers and my iPod and shook her head, her face instantly falling.

I pressed play in the first song and put it in shuffle, but not just any shuffle. My magic altered so it wouldn't put any heartbreaking songs. Bella opened her mouth to protest but the music filled the air before she could utter a word.

"_Birds flying high you know how I feel." _ My voice slowly filled the air and effectively cut Bella off.

I knew for a fact that Bella enjoyed my singing; she said it was really good and we had always had a good time listening to it. In fact, the CD I gave her with my covers was the only one that had survived her wrath toward music. A small smile crawled into her face and I felt myself relax, realizing my theory was right.

"_Sun in the sky you know how I feel." _I sang at the same time as my voice flew through the entire room.

"That's… you?" Jacob asked, amazed.

"My own cover of Nina Simone's _feeling good_." I nodded, proud. Nina Simone had been very famous in her time and that song was by far my favorite. I used to sing it all the time; I had recorded it around the 30's but had done another cover recently. I had to do something while I was at Denali.

"And you're okay wit this?" he asked Bella who had a thoughtful look on her face. Right as the chorus was about to come she glanced at me and smiled broadly.

"_It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me and you know how I feel." _We sang at the same time, she off-key, and burst out laughing.

"I take that as a yes." Jacob laughed and nudged me with his shoulder.

After making sure that Bella approved music, Jacob went back to working and Bella and I talked while we sat at the rabbit's hood. She asked me about my new life and I carefully explained how everything was going, without giving much away because I had told Jake I was moving to L.A.

"How's Alice?" she asked.

"She's great. Her and Jasper go out almost every night, you know, so many clubs and stuff to do." I said and Bella nodded, she had interpreted the message. Alice and Japer weren't home, they hadn't been for a while neither had they communicated with me. The longing I felt for both of them made me sulk.

"Carlisle?"

I sighed and leaned back, putting my weight in my elbows and turning my head to look at her. I lifted an eyebrow and she flushed, looking down at her knotted hands that were lying on her lap.

"He's fine. So is Esme, in case you were wondering." I shrugged.

"And rose and Emmet, do they like college?"

I scoffed and she smiled but I noticed it didn't reach her eyes. In fact, most of the times since I had gotten here, it never did. I sat up straight and glanced over her shoulder at Jake who had stopped working for a second and met my eyes. We both knew what she wanted to know, even though she wasn't asking directly. And by the concern in Jake's eyes I knew I had underestimated Bella's grief. She was worse than I thought.

"Why don't you stop beating around the bush and ask what you really want to know?" I wondered and she flushed to the roots of her hair. "He's fine, Bella."

"Fine? Not at all shaken, not even one bit?" her voice trembled and her eyes filled with fresh tears. Automatically, like a defense reflex, he hand moved to her chest and she moved her shoulder down so it looked like she was protecting her own heart.

"oh, no, no, no, no. That's not what I meant." I said quickly. "I meant he's fine physically, as in totally healthy and not at all in any danger what-so-ever." She relaxed a bit but her position didn't change.

"He's a mess, Bella; totally unrecognizable, at least at first. Now he's more like his usual broody self. He's holding it together for the family's sake. But he doesn't really go out, he just plays." I elaborated in what little I knew about Edward's state. That's how he had acted for the first month, and then around month two he had started to be the Edward I met back in the 20's. Two weeks later he left.

"Oh, okay." She reasoned, finally relaxing her whole posture. I nodded and jumped off the hood of the car. Jacob met me halfway to the speakers and I looked up at him.

"I told you she wasn't okay." He whispered to me and I flushed, embarrassed and ashamed.

"You don't have to remind me I messed up, I know." I hissed at him and he blinked down at me, surprised at my disdain.

I had promised Edward I would try to protect Bella, but instead of doing so I had wrapped myself in my selfish bubble and hadn't cared about checking on Bella at all. I had failed Edward—the only friend I had for a long time until Alice and Jasper came; he was my confidant, he had even become my brother and I missed being able to talk to him constantly.—I broke the promised I had made to him in our last civil conversation, where I had seen him break in front of me for the girl now sitting on a car's hood.

I walked to the speakers and put on the _Happy Mood_ playlist. Immediately, _Titanium_ by David Guetta feat Sia filled the air and I turned, forcing Bella to her feet and starting to dance. She tried to follow me but really, she looked like she was walking on cracked egg shells barefooted. I giggled and grabbed Jacob's hand, forcing him to dance as well. We spend a long time like this; none of them knew how to dance so after a song I just started to openly make fun of them and tried to imitate them. Bella and I twirled around the room, our laughter filling the air and echoing into the house while Jacob leaned against the car and smiled at us.

In one of my twirling I slammed into him without noticing and he put his hands in my waist to steady me. I looked up at him, when I realized he was a bit too close. Our noses would touch if either of us moved an inch closer. My breath hitched in my throat and I just stood there, gazing up into his beautiful warm brown eyes. They went down to my lips for a second before meeting mine again, his heart beat increasing just as my breathing started to alter. I wanted to kiss him, he wanted to kiss me, but Bella was still there and we couldn't do that in front of her. Besides, we still had to talk about our issues. I couldn't look away, though. Fortunately, I didn't have to be the one to do so. Jacob released me and stepped back; I blinked a few times and turned away as well.

"You know what, guys? I think I'm gonna leave." Bella said, tilting her head to the side and her eyes darting from Jacob to me.

"Are you sure?"I asked.

"Yes, I have been neglecting Charlie for some time now. You can drop by my house later, if you want." She added, her eyes widening slightly.

"Of course, Bella." I nodded and gave her a tight hug.

Jacob decided to walk her to the truck and I stayed back, playing with my iPod and trying to find some music that would calm my sudden nerves. I opted for some good old classical music. The sound of Aldemaro Romero's _Fuga con Pajara Pinta_ filled the air. I wasn't a big fan of Latin composers but this one was excellent, I loved the violins here. Jacob came back in and the air was awkward and tense between us. _What do I say? _Fortunately, I didn't have to think for something to say because he decided to speak first.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you before, with the whole telling Bella thing." He took in a deep breath and continued. "But when you left—when you left, I was affected deeply and apparently so was she. And, I don't know, she came here one day and we started to hang out."

"Charlie thinks you're together." I interrupted. My voice was soft and vulnerable.

"What? No, we aren't." he shook his head and took a step toward me, I looked down. "_No_, Antoinette. She's like a sister to me."

I still didn't say anything. He let the silence stretch, the song ending and another one, Tchaikovsky's violin concerto in D major, started. He took another stride toward me and closed the distance between us; putting a hand in my chin, he lifted my head so I was forced to make eye contact with him.

"She's like a sister, Antoinette. I don't care what Charlie said." He paused, debating whether or not to continue talking. "I was devastated when you left, I missed you so _much_. I'm not over you, love, I'm not." His hand moved to the side of my face and he caressed it with the back of his fingers. I leaned in to the contact as I took a step closer to him; we were so close I could feel his warmth.

"Are you over me?" he asked as he rested his forehead against mine, my heart was pounding in my chest by now.

"No, I'm not." I breathed as I leaned in and closed the space between us.

As my lips met his I felt the familiar electricity between us and realized that nothing had changed. He still liked me, he still cared about me. My hand moved up to the crook of his neck, right where I could feel his fast heartbeat under my fingertips. I knew one thing for sure: I'd find a way to keep coming here.

We kissed for another while, somehow we ended sitting on the floor. When we broke apart, I kept my eyes closed, a small smile in my face. When I finally opened my eyes I found him gazing at me.

"You are so beautiful." He muttered and I leaned in to give him a soft kiss.

He pulled me toward him and I complied, leaning my head into his chest. I was sitting between his legs, one of my own under one of his, his arms around me forming a barrier.

"Antoinette?" he asked after a while of silent content. "Do you remember what you last said to me? What did it mean?"

I did remember what I said to him that evening. I had said it in French, so he wouldn't understand, in the hopes that if we never met again maybe he would keep that sentence as a reminder that I existed. I turned my head so I was looking straight at him and said:

"My heart will always be yours, I'll never forget you." I grabbed one of his hands and he laced our fingers. "That's what it means."

He smiled and pressed his forehead to my temple. I felt his chuckle against my side, his lips behind my ear.

"It's the same for me, too." He murmured in my ear and kisses my jaw.

I have always had problems with commitment. Blame it on my father for marrying me off when I was very young or to the fact that people die and I don't, but admitting to myself that I'm in love had always seemed impossible to me. It'd usually take me years to admit it to myself and another couple to tell the guy; thank god I only date immortals. But at that moment, with the music soft in the background and with so little space between us our breaths mixed, I didn't find it that hard. Sure I wasn't in love yet. But, if this continued, I could see myself falling for him in the near future, and falling hard. And I didn't have a problem with it.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: Say you love me.**

The weeks pasted faster than ever; I went down to the reservation four times a week, always in the evening. Jacob still believed I was indeed staying in Seattle, which was true one way or the other, so I had to pretend I went to school. Brockway's High School of Arts, to be exact. The only one who knew the truth was Bella. Jacob didn't know that I didn't do anything in the morning but work, that I apparated every evening to my old house and spent the entire time trying to make it look like its former self, that I usually took my car and drove down to the reservation. I hated lying to him, it made me feel sick and untrustworthy but it was what needed to be done.

One Saturday, Jacob decided it was time for us to try the bikes. Now, usually I'd be up for it, but that day I just didn't have a good feeling. They both shrugged me off saying I was just scared, I said they were right but I knew better and decided to be extremely careful that day. Bella went first, Jacob carefully explained to her how everything worked and how to start the bike. I noticed she wasn't paying much attention, her mind was far away.

After a try or two she finally got it right and drove away. At first, everything was fine but then she started to get distracted with her surroundings and lost control of the bike, she hit the breaks and went head over the bike and fell on the ground.

"Shit, do something." I told Jacob.

He quickly got in the other bike and drove to where she was while I ran after him. When I got to them he had helped her sit up and she had a hand to her forehead. I could smell the blood ten feet away.

"Ugh, that doesn't look good." I muttered as I leaned in to look at her wound more carefully.

"Don't get scared but you're bleeding a lot." Jacob explained to her.

"Oh, my, I'm sorry, Mia." She apologized, knowing blood sometimes could make me lose control.

"What, you are apologizing for bleeding?" Jacob chuckled, shaking his head.

"It's just blood, Bella. It's cool." I comforted her.

Today I didn't feel too dangerous; maybe it had to do with the fact that I would never do something dangerous around Jacob. I wouldn't forgive myself if he got hurt because of me. Her blood barely bothered me; in fact I couldn't even smell it anymore.

"Let's take you to the hospital, all right?" Jacob told us and I nodded, helping Bella to her feet.

We took her to the hospital where she got seven stitches, proof that her wound was deep. We then took her back to her house, where I helped her shower and get ready for bed. It was only five in the afternoon but her wound hurt so she'd watched some T.V. and go to sleep.

"All done. How you feeling?" I asked her as she sat down in front of the T.V. in the living room.

"I've been better, not gonna lie. Who'd think having your bone broken would sting less than a cut in your head?" she asked, humorlessly.

I laughed but stop abruptly, realizing it wasn't really that funny. She was clearly in pain. Sighing, I pressed my index finger to her temple.

"There, you won't feel pain for ten hours. Don't move too much though or you'll pull at your stitches and don't look down for too long." I ordered her then leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll visit you tomorrow."

"Bye." She called out to me as I closed the door behind me.

I made my way to the rabbit, where Jacob was waiting for me, and hoped in. he looked at me worriedly and I sent him a soft smile, letting him know Bella was fine.

"Where to now, miss?" he said with a serious mocking tone.

"Why, kind sir, wherever you wish to take me." I giggled as I took his hand and laced our fingers together.

He laughed and sped away, leading the way to La Push reservation. When we got to his house we found that Billy was nowhere to be found.

"He's probably down at Harry's house." Jacob commented as we flopped down on the couch.

"Well, then we can have some alone time, if you know what I mean." I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively.

He pretended to think for a minute before tackling me, making me shriek in amusement. He kissed every part of my face, my nose, my cheeks, my brows, my forehead, while he tickled my side. I couldn't stop laughing.

"Stop, stop." I laughed. "I was joking."

"Your loss." He muttered against my neck, pressing his lips to the soft skin and sucking slightly.

"Jake, seriously, stop or you'll give me a hickey." I pulled him by the hair and he groaned in pain, shaking his head.

"Fine, don't have to physically hurt Me." he mumbled, resting his head back on my neck. This time he didn't kiss me, though.

We stayed like that, laying on the couch with him half on top of me, our legs a tangled mess and skipped through the channels. Suddenly, a rerun of Gossip Girl showed on the screen and I gasped, putting a hand up to stop him from changing channels.

"Oh, I love this episode. It's Lily's wedding, she's marrying Chuck's father although she's so obviously in love with Rufus, who is Dan's dad. And Chuck and Blair get together. They're perfect, I ship them badly. Dan and Serena kind of break up, so that's sad, I guess." I ranted, eyes glued to the screen.

"What?" Jacob blinked down at me; he had sat up halfway down my rant.

"Um, I mean… yeah, Gossip Girl is not that bad." I flushed a deep red and covered my face with my hands.

He burst out laughing and I pouted, eventually joining in.

"I can't believe you actually like Gossip Girl." He finally said. "No, no, wait, you _love_ Gossip Girl. 'I ship them badly.' What's that even supposed to mean?"

"Yeah, yeah, I like Gossip Girl. It's my guilty pleasure. And you, mister, be careful or you'll be girlfriendless in a snap of my fingers." I crossed my arms and sat up, feigning hurt.

I was more amused than hurt, actually. I even found the idea of me, a very old girl, liking a program for teenagers incredibly hilarious. And he was a boy, boys never understood what girls liked.

"Ok, I'm sorry. Come here." He said to me as he hugged me. "I love you nonetheless, even with your obsession for Gossip Girl." He mumbled, obviously not thinking what he was saying.

"Wait, what?" I asked, moving to face him.

"What?" he asked back, suddenly tensed.

I searched his face for some trace that told me he was joking, but all I found was the intense look on his eyes that told me he meant it. _Oh, God._

"You said you love me." I repeated his words, looking for any kind of denial. I received none.

He pressed his forehead against my temple and sighed, his body slowly relaxing with the gesture. I moved my hands so they were around his neck and he looked up, meeting my questioning eyes.

"I—I do. I'm in love with you, Marie Antoinette." He confessed, his eyes never leaving mine.

His brown eyes radiated love, yes, but there was also a little fear down there. Fear that I would turn him down. I brushed my lips against his softly. Blinking back tears I had no idea why I had, I smiled at him.

"Since when?" I whispered against his lips.

"I realized I loved you around two weeks after you left but I think I fell for you long before that." He explained, showing me his pearly white teeth.

I leaned in and kissed him. This time it wasn't soft, it was full of need and a passion I hadn't felt in a hundred years. When his tongue asked for entrance I didn't deny it, neither did I stopped him when one of his hands went up my shirt, his fingers touching my soft skin and unconsciously making me shiver. I buried my hand on his hair; tugging at it and making him groan into my mouth, my other hand touched his chest, his arms. Soon we were lying on the couch, one of my legs around his hip, the soft fabric of my thigh-high socks touching the line of skin that showed because of his shirt going up.

His lips were against my neck, then my jaw. I took his face between my hands and pulled his lips toward mine, I needed his lips in mine not on my neck, at least for now. I didn't even hesitate to pull off his green V-neck shirt as I ran my hands up and down his abs. when had he gotten so _fit_? He tugged at the hem of my black blouse and I let him pull it off, my mouth searching his the moment the item of clothing was off. My heart was beating fast, the only thing I could hear were both our heartbeats.

"What's this?" he suddenly asked, leaning away so he could inspect the skin beneath my collarbone better.

I looked down on myself and frowned. His fingers trailed around the soft small handwrite and I sigh. In the heat of the moment I had forgotten about that particular thing. _Θα βρίσκεστε πάντα μαζί με το αίμα._ It meant '_you will always be together by blood'_ in Greek. My sister had another one in the same place but hers said '_twins are precious and rare things.'_ We had them done the first time we went to Sparta, when we were still mortals. It was made with magic so it had disappeared when our bond was broken, now it had appeared again but I had gotten used to it not being on my skin.

"It's a tattoo." I grinned sheepishly. "My sister has the rest of the phrase."

He leaned in and brushed his lips to the black ink, I closed my eyes in content.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that you also know Greek?" he whispered in my ear and I smiled.

"Because you know me very well." I whispered back and kissed him again.

This time though, I didn't let the kiss go that far. He loved me, I wasn't sure if I loved him yet. I did not want to sleep with him for the first time this way, in a couch, without him being sure I reciprocated his feelings.

"Not on my couch." A voice came to my ears, making me jump and hit Jacob on the head.

We both turned around to find that Billy Black had gotten home earlier than expected. He was sitting on his wheelchair by the door, behind him a young man stood with a shocked expression on his face and his eyes trained on me. He had cropped black hair and black eyes, as well as tanned skin, a common treat here at the reservation. He was very fit. The first thing I noticed about him was that he had no shirt on, he only wore some pants. The second thing I noticed was his expression, it was one similar to the one Billy was wearing: anger. What a sin, a pale-faced on his reservation. I didn't even know who this guy was and I already knew I wouldn't like him.

I glanced at Jacob and he immediately stood up, I followed suit, almost as if the couch was on fire. This was so embarrassing, I couldn't look anywhere but the floor as I looked for my blouse. Where had he tossed it at? I was going to kill him. If Billy didn't kill us first, that is. I finally found the offending piece of clothing and put it on quickly, rearranging my skirt while I turned to the kitchen table and retreated my purse. All the time I didn't turn to face Jacob or his father or the young man, who now looked at me like he had seen a ghost, but I did keep Jake on my peripheral vision. He had put on his shirt, which was behind the couch, and now stood in front of his father.

I walked stiffly toward the door; I met Jacob's eyes in the process and received a grin from him that made me roll my eyes. I finally turned to the other two men in the room, Billy's eyes digging holes into my head.

"You," he pointed at me. "Get out of my house."

"Of course, sir." I picked my coat from behind the door and walked out.

I nodded my head at the young man as I headed out, I got no response. It didn't even bother me that Billy had literally kicked me out of his house. This was so embarrassing. Jacob closed the door after me and walked with me to my car.

"Well, that was…" he started once we reached the driver's side of the car.

"Yeah, I'm never being allowed into that house again." I said and he fought a smile.

Eventually, we burst out laughing so hard my stomach even hurt. I covered my faced with my hands, letting a frustrated groan.

"Ugh, that was so embarrassing, Jake." I said as I leaned into him.

He automatically put his arms around me, his warmth engulfing me, and I smiled, pressing my nose to his neck. Suddenly, I wasn't so embarrassed anymore. Sure, Billy probably wouldn't talk to me again but I had enjoyed what we had been doing and I just loved kissing him.

"He'll get over it." he murmured, kissing my forehead.

"I love it when you do that." I blurted out as I closed my eyes.

And I did. I loved it when he did those small gestures that showed me he truly cared. I loved it when he kissed the spot between my eyes, or how he could be such a romantic when he really wanted but, at the same time, he could be my best friend. I loved it when he suddenly hugged me from behind and softly kissed my shoulder after an entire day of fixing bikes, he did it even in front of Bella or his father. I loved his smile and the twinkling in his eyes; I loved his loyalty to his friends and his obsession with mechanics, although I'd never tell him that. All this brought a pang to my chest, because I hated to know that I would eventually hurt him.

"Really?"—a kiss on the spot between my eyes—"well, I guess I'll keep doing it."—another kiss on my nose—"Come back tomorrow? We're having a gathering, everyone's coming."

I pouted at him as I put my arms around his neck. Was he really asking me to come after what had happened today? His father would eat me up alive.

"Your dad will kill me." I muttered.

His expression changed, fast. His eyebrows pulled together and his lips turned slightly downwards. I could see that the idea of his dad not liking me bothered him. I frowned; I didn't want him to have trouble with his father because of me. Great, another coin to the guilty jar. I am despicable.

"I'll talk to him," he assured me. "He won't bother you, I promise, love."

"Jake…are you fighting with your father? We never talked about stuff like that." I asked him, worried.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, momentarily closing his eyes. Some light drops of rain stared to fall but one pointed look from me at the sky ended them. We did not need rain.

"I don't understand why he doesn't like you." He groans. "If he only tried to see what I can, but he's just so negative and won't tell me anything."

The guilt in my chest grew bigger and bigger until I felt like I almost couldn't breathe.

"Sometimes we don't even talk." He added in a small voice and I bit my lip.

I was tearing this family apart for my own personal interests. I didn't know I was that selfish. I put a hand to his cheek and he leaned into it, sighing.

"Jake, maybe he's lonely. I mean, your sisters are away and—and your mom is gone. You're the only thing he has." I reminded him.

"I know that, you think I don't know that?" he shot back at me. "Rachel and Rebecca don't come ever. It's like they're allergic to the reservation." He scoffs angrily.

"But what really angers me is that he knows I was sad and now I'm happy and he ruins it." he protested, running a hand up and down his face.

I looked around, knowing that if I looked at him for too long I'd cry. The woods looked incredibly inviting, they represented an escape. I should really break up with him; I cannot let him ruin his relationship with his father because of me. Blood comes first, always. But I couldn't bring myself to do so, not after he told me he loved me, not after knowing I'm close to loving him myself.

"Listen to me," I started with authority in my voice. "I will come tomorrow and I'll be the perfect girlfriend there's ever been but you have got to talk to him today, _as adults_, fix things. Because I will _not_ be the reason why a family breaks apart."

He blinked down at me and stared at me for a moment. I realized I had never talked to him like this, with authority, and that he must be looking at me like I'm a different person. But I did not care; he had to know I was serious about this, that I'm actually more mature than I look it.

"All right, I'll talk to him." he nodded, a smile tugging at his lips. I smiled back and pulled him closer to me, his arms wrapped around my waist.

"I'll do anything for you." He whispered against my ear.

"Don't do it for me, do it for you. I want you to be happy." I told him truthfully.

He nodded and we kept hugging, just there. I didn't know then if his relationship with his father would work itself out or not, but I knew one thing: I did not deserve Jacob Black.


	17. Chapter 17

**_Chapter 18:_**

"Please, Bella, you have got to come." I begged into the phone as I tried to find out what to wear.

"_Why?"_ She asked me.

"Because if you don't go Billy Black will be able to kill me without any witnesses." I explained.

Maybe I should wear my black pants and a simple blouse. But I never wore plants, then again it would be very cold tonight and, even though I didn't feel cold as easily as others, everyone still believed I was human. I sighed and settled for a dark blue dress, some black tights under it and my knee high brown boots. I put my coat over it and started to make my make-up.

"_I still don't know." _Bella muttered.

"Listen, I have to be there in less than an hour and it would be great if you'd give an answer." I said, exasperated.

I decided to go for a natural make-up so I was done in less than ten minutes. It took some more convincing but Bella finally said yes, Charlie was also going so we'd meet over there.

"_um, I have to tell you something."_ Bella started, "_I might have mentioned Angela that you were visiting, and she wants to go to the movies. So I was thinking, you, mike, Angela, Jake and I. what do you think? Of course, we cant watch a love movie for…well, obvious reasons but I was thinking—"_ she ranted.

"Bella, it's fine. I'll tell Jake." I cut in. "See you at the rez."

"Why do you want to watch Sucker Punch?" Jake frowned. "I heard it was bad."

We were sitting on the stairs that led to his front porch, eating spaghetti Bolognese and avoiding the adults at all causes. Bella was already finished with her plate, most likely because she was vegetarian and almost didn't eat at all, and I was halfway through mine but I knew I wouldn't finish it all. Jacob, however, was done with his second plate. This boy eat like crazy, I didn't understand how it was possible for him to still be fit.

"Bella doesn't want to watch love movies. It was her idea; I think we should accept her decision." I said as I gave him a pointed look.

"Hey, Jake!" Someone shouted from the road as they walked up to us.

Two boys around Jake's age walked up toward us. One was taller than the other and had a rounded face, while the other boy had a larger face. They both fist-pumped Jacob. The taller one looked over at me with a curious look, I sent him a small smile.

"Guys, these are Quill Ateara and Embry Call." Jacob explained to us and I nodded, understanding dawning.

They were Jake's friends, the ones I hadn't been able to meet because they were always over when I had already left.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Marie Antoinette." I said as I let out a hand for one of them to shake.

Quill shook my hand first and then I extended my hand to Embry who did the same. Bella introduced herself after I did. Quill sat down on the ground in front of us but Embry moved to one side and dragged a patio chair toward us and sat down.

"So are you really his girlfriend?" Embry asked me.

"Yes." I said slowly.

"Get out!" Quill exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" I blinked at him.

"You're way out of his league." Embry explained to me, throwing Jacob a smirk.

I frowned and turned to Bella. She looked at me with a confused expression and then eyed Jake's friends, annoyed. Were these guys serious? Jacob was gorgeous, he was incredibly hot and he was a great person. No girl was out of his league, if anything _he_ was out of _their_ league.

"If I wasn't his girlfriend, would I do this?" I asked them, angry at them.

I turned to Jake and raised a hand to his neck, pulling him down toward me and kissing him softly in the lips. One of his hands went to my cheek and I smiled into the kiss, enjoying the way my stomach filled with butterflies. We pulled apart and I put my arms around his torso, resting my head on his shoulder and smirking at the boys in front of me, who were looking at us with their mouths hanging open.

"Shut your mouths or you'll swallow a fly." I giggled and Jacob laughed, the sound vibrating on his chest.

"Wow, man, how did you—what did he—woah, man." Quill stuttered and I laughed.

"Yeah, I don't know, either." Jacob shrugged as he kissed my temple. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"So… I heard the movie sucks." Mike said to me as we waited for Bella.

"Well, Bella wanted to see it." I shrugged. I didn't want to talk and my tone made it clear but he wasn't listening.

"We should go out some other day, just you and me. We'd be able to see _love written backwards is love."_ Mike suggested and I raised an eyebrow.

"Dude." Jacob warned him, putting an arm over my shoulders.

"I'm not interested but thank you." I nodded at him. "Maybe you should take Jessica; Bella tells me she likes you a lot," I added, pointing at Bella who was walking toward us.

"I have bad news. Angela is sick so it's only us." She told me apologetically.

I groaned inwardly as I looked up at Jake. He was glaring at Mike with pure annoyance bordering on hatred. Yes, this was going to be great.

To say the movie sucked was the understatement of the century, no, millennium. The music was bad, the actors exaggerated everything and there was too much blood. Not to mention every effect looked fake. I sighed as I leaned into Jake's side, bored.

"Do you wanna get out of here? This sucks." He whispered in my ear, giving me Goosebumps.

"We can't leave Bella alone." I whispered back.

We glanced at Bella. She was awkwardly sitting between Jacob and Mike, who was trying to make a pass on her. Jacob looked back at me and gave me a pout. In five seconds I had melted and nodded. We quietly got up and walked down the row of seats.

"That was bad." He laughed, lacing his fingers with mine.

"Indeed." I laughed as well.

We took a seat right in front of the bathrooms. The place was completely quiet and empty, my heart accelerated as a knot formed on my stomach. Something was wrong, very wrong.

"What?" Jake asked suddenly.

"I—I don't know. I just had this feeling, like something bad was going to happen." I mumbled. "Forget it."

"Sometimes I think you're a witch or something." He said to me, kissing my cheek.

I whipped my head to the side to face him, my eyes widened. He was so close our noses bumped. He laughed at my facial expression, putting one arm around my shoulders.

"I'm kidding, Antoinette. You're not a witch." He murmured and I relaxed a bit.

"Although sometime you can predict what's going to happen and your 'bad feelings' turn out to be true. But you're intuitive, that's nice." He added, smiling a little.

He hadn't found out yet, but if he had noticed those little things I would have to tell him soon. I kissed him lightly, enjoying the warm feeling that spread through me. We broke apart but he didn't really moved so we were sitting in an awkward position. Both our torsos were turned so we were facing each other, his arm was around my shoulders and one of my hands was holding the hand that fell on my shoulder. His forehead was still pressed to mine. The bad feeling was gone but the worry it brought was still in the back of my mind.

"You sure your family is never coming back here?" he suddenly asked.

"No, why do you ask?" I frowned.

"Because…"—he cleared his throat.—"because I don't want you to leave again."

I lifted my eyes from the floor to his eyes and bit my lip. He had to know, I had to tell him now. Because he had to know I would leave, sooner or later. I didn't age, I'd look seventeen forever and he deserved someone normal, someone he could have a family with.

"Jake, I… I don't know, I… I have to tell you something." I stuttered as I pulled away and folded my hands on my lap.

"I'm—my parents were very special people, they lived in… the sea." I said and inwardly frowned. What the hell? That was no way of starting a story.

"You mean like marines?" Jake frowned, obviously confused.

"No, no, let me start again." I shook my head. "What do you believe in?"

"What do I believe—? Are you ok, love?" he frowned, taking one of my hands.

I opened my mouth to answer but the door opening got my attention. I turned to watch as Mike ran into the men's bathroom and loudly vomited. I glanced at Jake and we both burst out laughing, loudly. All the serious topic of my family forgotten. Bella ran out too and frowned at us.

"Don't laugh, he's sick." She scolded, standing by the bathroom door.

I bit my lip hard to stop the giggles and hid my face on Jacob's shoulder. He still shook with laughter but a few minutes later he managed to control himself. I lifted my head and smiled at him, I couldn't stop smiling around him. I felt like a thirteen-year-old. He kissed me and I was happy to feel a small smile form on his lips.

"I love you." He mumbled against my lips.

My breath hitched on my throat. I opened my mouth to say it back, why wouldn't I? He was sweet, he made me happy, he already loved me and, if I was honest, he was everything I was looking for. But the words couldn't leave my mouth. I _knew_ he wanted me to say it back. It was all over his eyes and the longer I took, the hurter he looked. _Say it._ I scolded myself. My heart started to beat faster again and a knot formed on my throat. I realized I was pretty closed to crying.

"Jake, I'm so sorry. I'm an awful girlfriend." I buried my head in my hands.

"No, you're not." He denied and I felt like hitting him over the head. He had to stop treating me like I was the epitome of perfection because I definitely wasn't.

"I can't tell you the one thing you want to hear," I replied, angry.

"It's okay; it's definitely for a reason. So, I'll wait." He shrugged.

My eyes watered. He was too perfect, too nice. Right when I was about to open my mouth to say something about it, a shadow fell upon us and we looked up. Mike and Bella were standing there. Mike looked worse than death; he was sweaty and incredibly pale. My bad feeling returned.

"So, I think I need to go." Mike nodded at us.

"Really, you think?" Jacob said.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling too well." Mike explained to me. I looked away.

"You are feeling sick? Maybe you should go to the hospital. Do you _want_ me to push you into the hospital?" Jacob snapped, suddenly getting up.

I jumped and Mike and Bella took a few steps back. What in hell?

"Dude, what's your problem?" Mike stuttered, looking at him with widened eyes.

"Jacob, breathe." I ordered, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him backwards.

"What's gotten into you?" Bella asked, her tone unbelievable.

"I—I don't know." Jacob mumbled, a frown etched to his features. "I'm not feeling too good."

I looked at him closely. Apart from his frown he didn't look bad, but his heart was racing the exact way it does when you have a high fever. My hand went from his chest to his neck. It was burning up.

"You're way too hot, do you want me to take you home?" I asked him, glancing at Bella.

"Umm, no, don't worry… but I gotta go. I'll call you, okay?" he rushed before turning around and walking away.

"But, Jacob!" I called after him.

He ignored me. Bella touched my arm and I turned to her, frowning. We locked eyes and I knew she was thinking the same thing I was: Something was definitely wrong. The question was, What?


	18. Chapter 18

**_Chapter 19:_**

I huffed as I knocked impatiently on the door of the Swan residence. It was the third time I knocked and no one had answered me yet. I was growing tired and even considering breaking in. Finally, Bella opened the door for me with an apologizing smile.

"Sorry, I was getting a shower," She apologized.

I walked past her without saying a word and flopped down on the couch, my arms crossed tightly and my eyebrows scrunched up together. Bella closed the door, muttering a 'sure, come in. I'm good, by the way.' under her breath. I ignored her and pointedly glared at the turned-off T.V.

"He's ignoring me," I said through my teeth.

It had been a week since the movie and I hadn't talked to Jacob at all since then. He had called me the next day only to say he was sick and that I couldn't go over. That was all, and he had been incredibly moody. I called every single day but it either went to voice mail or Billy snapped at me to stop calling.

"No, he isn't. He's sick," She replied, sitting next to me.

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, right, sick my ass. If he truly was sick, he would've let me go down. I knew enough about medicine to know that you did not went mute when sick. You may not want to talk much but a simple 'come over' could suffice.

"Oh, yeah? And what exactly does he have?" I asked sarcastically.

"He's got mono," She replied.

I sat up straight and turned to her, my eyes widened. He couldn't have mono, because that was a saliva-transmitted illness. And I did not have mono, I couldn't get sick.

"No way, who told you that?" I asked her.

"Billy did," She shrugged.

I stood up and walked to the kitchen where the phone was. Picking it up, I dialed Jake's home number and held the receiver out for Bella to take.

"Call them and ask Billy to explain how the hell that's possible," I ordered her.

She frowned at me but picked the phone anyway, waiting for someone to answer. After a few seconds she hung up, shrugging.

"They're not answering," She said.

I sent her a look that made her dial again. After dialing two times, she hang up harshly and glared at the phone.

"Okay, so maybe they are ignoring us," she muttered.

I grabbed the phone and dialed the number again, waiting impatiently. My heart flipped in my chest when someone actually picked up. Someone I hadn't expected to answer.

"Jake?" I asked, confused. He had sound perfectly fine.

Silence met me and nothing more. He hadn't hung up yet and I wasn't about to, either, not until he explained himself to me.

"Jacob, I know that's you," I said.

Nothing. I couldn't help but think how dysfunctional our relationship sometimes was. I left him without saying before when I had to leave for Phoenix; he was leaving me now without really doing so.

"Fine, don't talk," I slammed the receiver down.

"So what are we going to do?" Bella asked me, her tone of voice careful.

"I think it's time we pay Jacob a visit," I muttered, my voice laced with bitterness.

The drive to the reservation took us more than usual because Bella's truck was being stupid. On the way there I couldn't help but imagine every possible scenario, none of them were pretty. In almost every one he was cheating on me but that wouldn't explain why he was avoiding Bella as well. In only about one or two scenarios was he actually sick but none of those ended well either. I wasn't good when I was scared, worried and hurt and in all the scenarios I felt those three.

Imagine my surprise when we pulled up in front of his house to find him walking out of the backdoor, wearing nothing but some trousers and some running shoes. His hair was cut off almost military style. Bella and I shared a look before I got out of the car, slamming the door shut. I faintly heard the sound of Bella's door opening and closing and Bella following but I didn't focus on that, nor did I focus on the fact that it was pouring rain and soon enough I'd be dripping wet, I was seething. Jacob saw us but didn't stop, instead he quickened his pace.

"Hey!" Bella called up to him but he didn't even look back.

"Jacob," I called up to him, my voice eerily calm considering the anger I felt.

He stopped and turned around reluctantly; giving Bella and I time to reach him. I studied him and what I saw shocked me, not only had he cut his hair off he had also gotten a tattoo.

"You cut your hair off?" I exclaimed, making him look directly at me for the first time. "And got a tattoo?" I looked at the tattoo marking his skin closely and frowned when the symbol appeared to be familiar to me. When had I seen that before?

"I thought you were too sick to come outside! Or even answer the phone when either of us called," Bella said accusingly.

"Bella…" Jacob tried to say but seemed to struggle with his words and remained silent.

I knew where I had seen that mark before and I also knew its meaning. It was the symbol ancient Quileute tribe-members used for the word _protector,_ and the last time I had seen it was the last time I saw any of the Quileute shape shifters, around the time I wrote the treaty. It was a symbol they used to let their tribe know there were people out there who protected them from their enemies. _Oh, my god._ No, it couldn't be. There's no way.

"No, it's just—me, I get but, _her_?" Bella asked, her tone of voice bordering disbelief.

I looked up from the ground and met his brown eyes that were full of pain and bitterness, something wasn't right.

"Antoinette…" he started but frowned even more, if that was possible. "G—go away."

"What?" I spluttered, pretending not to hear Bella's sharp intake of breath. She had been through a breakup before and I was pretty sure she knew this was quickly looking like one.

"Go away," He repeated slowly, as if I was testing his patience and that got me very irritated.

"What happened to you?" Bella asked but he ignored her, his eyes trained on my blue ones.

"I know you're not sick so, what's going on?" I insisted. The rain was so cold it was making me shiver slightly and I was never cold. That irritated me even more.

Jacob blinked down at me and turned around starting to walk away again. Oh, this boy really had a death wish. With a startled 'hey!' I walked up to him and grabbed his arm trying to stop him. His skin was hotter than the last time I had seen him, the temperature surprised me and I let go off of his arm like I had been burned. Our eyes met again, his were still clouded with pain.

"Did Sam get you? That's what's happening?" Bella asked. I made a mental note to ask who the hell Sam was later.

"Sam's trying to help, don't blame him," He said, his eyes filling with a bitterness I had never seen on him and his body suddenly shaking with anger. "But if you want somebody to blame, what about those bloodsuckers you love so much? The Cullens," He spat at Bella and I and all the blood drained from my face, Bella's heart skipped a beat.

He knew about them, oh, god, he knew and that was horrible. Still I didn't understand why the Cullens, who weren't even here, were responsible for his tantrum. The three of us remained silent for a few moments, none of us daring to say a word. I was running over the possibilities of how he found out and if it'd be too hypocrite of me to place a forgetting spell on him. While I was sure Bella was just about having a mayor internal freak-out.

"I—I don't know what you're talking about. No idea," Bella ran over her own words, blinking quickly.

"Bella…" I said with an edge to my voice. It was futile to deny anything.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," He snapped at her and she took a scared step back.

"You've been lying to everyone, to Charlie, but not me. Not anymore," He leaned in closer to her, really angry now and I knew Bella wouldn't be able to speak for a few minutes at least. She was probably too stunned and already down the guilt trip Jacob had sent her in.

"Jacob!" someone shouted from the wood's edge and Jacob and I turned to look.

There at the edge of the woods were a group of men, and one of them was signaling Jacob over. I didn't know which one. I recognized the guy who had caught me with Jake on Billy's sofa among them.

He turned back to me and I took a step closer to him, tilting my face up to meet his gaze pleadingly. He was sending me the same look but I had no idea why.

"Go home, Antoinette. Go to L.A., forget about me. We—we can't be together anymore." He said, trying to make me see sense but I didn't understand why I had to.

I was dripping wet, my hair was getting in my face and all I wanted was for him to hug me, to tell me I didn't have to leave. I was very upset. That's when I realized this scene seemed familiar somehow. My vision, the vision I had when I first met him, when I shook his hand. _Oh, god._ Jasper had been right; it probably meant I had to stop it. It probably meant I should've never come back.

"Listen, I know that I hurt you before and that I'm still hurting you with all my secrets," I started after I had realized my vision was coming true. "It kills me, it's killing me but there are things you can't know just—please," I begged, my eyes filling with tears.

He shook his head, obviously suffering as much as I was. I didn't understand anything. Why was he breaking up with me if it pained him so much? I didn't get it. Or maybe I did but simply didn't want to even consider the idea. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it.

"It—it's not you," he hesitated and I scoffed a little. It was unbelievable how accurate my visions could be.

"'it's not you, it's Me.' really? After everything I've done for you? After everything we went through, things _you _said?" I asked, now truly angry. He took a step back, suddenly startled. I've never been mad at him like this. "I moved out of my house for you, I left them for _you,"_ I hissed at him and took a step closer, jabbing an accusing finger at his chest.

"It is me. I'm—I'm not good. I used to be a good kid but not anymore," He explained, the bitterness coming back. "It doesn't even matter, ok? This is over, forget anything I said."

Those words hit me hard, so hard I even took a step back. Any traces of anger leaving my face and being replaced by a combination of betrayal and hurt. I blinked a few times at the ground, trying to make sense of his words.

"But—but you promised me, Jacob, you promised you'd never leave, you'd never _hurt _me," I said my voice a heartbreaking mess.

"I know," His face softened a bit but he was still bitter. "And this is me making sure you don't get hurt, go home."

None of us moved. I wanted to, believe me, but it was like my legs wouldn't move. I was paralyzed and all I could do was glare at him through my unshed tears. The other guys called him again, this time getting impatient. Apparently, so was Jacob because he looked at them and then back at me one last time before saying:

"I told you to go. What else do you want me to say? I'm done with you, now leave."

"Jacob Black!" Bella gasped, finally blinking out of her stupor. She took one step closer to him but I put a hand on her arm, she turned to me with confused brown eyes.

"Forget it, Bella," I told her, then turning back to Jacob I added icily: "it's not worthy it anymore."

He wanted mean, well that's what he would get. He was messing with a queen there was no way he'd walk away unscratched. He blinked once, clearly hurt and turned around, running to his so-called-new-friends.

The drive up to Bella's house was the longest drive ever, or at least that's how it felt like. I never met silence so loud. I wanted to cry, to yell at everyone who dared so much as to look at me, I wanted my sister; I wanted Alice to hug me and give one of her happy smiles. But I hadn't talked to Charlotte or Alice in at least a month now.

"What will you do now?" Bella asked when we got to her house.

"I don't know, I'll probably go home," I told her as we closed the door behind us and started to climb up the stairs. "And I mean real home," I clarified as we finally closed her room door.

"Of course, I understand," She said reassuringly but I knew the idea hurt her.

I sat on her bed and laid down, looking up at the roof. She did the same and we stayed like that for a few minutes before I broke the silence.

"Do you mind if I stay for the weekend here? One last weekend and then I'll go," I asked her, still looking up at the roof. She sighed and nodded.

"What about your stuff over at… Jake's?" her voice dropped a tone at his name and I cringed unconsciously.

"I—he can keep it, get rid off it," My voice wavered but I pretended like I hadn't noticed and so did she. "I'll buy new stuff, besides I think I've got more of his stuff than he does mine."

It was true. I almost always stole a sweater or T-shirt when I was with him from his drawer, once or twice leaving a shirt of my own because it didn't fit in my little bag or because I just forgot it. What he had that belong to me were mostly CDs, movies, one of my braided bracelets, a teddy bear, no idea how it got there, my white scarf and my guitar. I didn't care about any of those, I only cared about him and I wasn't sure I'd be able to go back there without breaking down.

"Besides, he told me to never go_ back._"

My voice broke at the end, his word coming back to me in echoes, and before I knew it I was crying. And I didn't mean silent tears were streaming down my face, no, I meant I was in full sob-sniff-cry-hiccup-repeat mode. Bella was quiet but she still hugged me until I was all cried out.

"Bella? I'll take you to the clearing tomorrow," I told her, my French accent slightly showing. She looked down at me surprised and I laughed without emotion.

"I know you're looking for the clearing, Bella, I'm not that oblivious," _Although I seem to have missed the exact moment my boyfriend decided he didn't love me anymore._ I added in my mind but shook the thought immediately; I was not going to cry again. "I'll take you there tomorrow."

And that I did. When early afternoon hit, around 12 o'clock, and after having brunch and having Bella explain my little situation with Jacob to his father so he'd let us go out, I apparated ourselves to the clearing. All of the plants were dried and it looked a lot different than it did last time but it was the same clearing. I started to walk around so Bella could have some privacy. I knew this clearing reminded her of Edward and that she needed her time. She gasped and I turned around to find her leaning on the grass but looking at my feet with a surprised look on her features. I looked down and realized that I had left a trail of fresh grass and newly-born flowers at my wake. Where my feet had landed and around that area they grew but the rest of the place was still dry so it looked like there was a little road leading up to me. Bella got up and walked to me, her eyes still trained to the fresh green grass.

"I'm sorry; when I'm upset I don't control my powers," I apologized, a little embarrassed. She nodded.

"That's really co—" She started to say but something in the air shifted and I cut her off.

"Wait," I said as I turned around to face the new presence before us: Laurent, the vampire who had been traveling with Victoria and James.

"Laurent?" Bella blurted out.

"Bella, Marie Antoinette," He said, as shocked to see us as we were to see him but he and I hid it better than Bella did.

"I didn't expect to see you here, any of you," He said as he moved in vampire speed so he was ten feet away from us instead of fifty. "I went to the Cullens' place but the house is empty," He added as if he wanted to explain further.

I took Bella's wrist and started to move back, not trusting Laurent at all. He was sending negative waves my way and I did not like it. Besides, I had never really trusted him not even after he helped us.

"I'm surprised they left you behind, weren't you kind of like a pet of theirs?" he asked Bella, acting like I wasn't there.

"Something like that," Bella muttered, grabbing my hand. She had realized Laurent was up to no good.

"They left me to look after her," I chimed in, not being willing to be left out.

"And do the rest of your family visit often?" he asked me cockily and I glared at him.

"All the time; more often than you'd think," I lied easily.

He walked closer to us, closing us in and I started to think of an easy way out. Why was it that I was always the one stuck with Bella in difficult situations? First, Port Angels, now, this.

"We'll tell them you passed by," Bella cut in, ruining any hope of Laurent buying my bluff with her shaky voice. "Although, I shouldn't tell… Edward—he's very protective of me."

Her voice faded at the name and I cursed her for having a big mouth.

"But he's far away, isn't he?" Laurent said smugly and I pushed Bella behind me.

"Why are you here?" I asked as he started to circle around us again. The more he neared our backs the more I moved so I'd still face him.

"I came as a favor to Victoria," He explained and I frowned. How come I hadn't figured this out? Why hadn't I felt her presence?

"Victoria?" Bella asked, fear dripping from her voice.

"She's quite put out with you," Laurent filled us in, confidingly. "Has her own agenda and everything. Victoria thinks it's only fair to kill Edward's mate given he killed hers."

"An eye for an eye," I said, realizing Victoria and I may have had more in common than I thought. Laurent nodded my way but kept his eyes on Bella.

"Victoria won't be happy about my killing you but I can't help myself. You're so mouthwatering and I'm so hungry," He went to attack Bella and that's when I decided I had had enough.

I moved so fast I was sure Bella couldn't even see me and appeared right in front of him. My face changed, my fangs grew so they touched my lower lip and dark veins appeared under my eyes, my eyes turned a deep blood red.

"You know, I haven't eaten someone of your kind in such a long time. I can't help myself, you're so mouthwatering and I'm so hungry," I smirked, throwing his words back at him and he growled.

He pushed me backwards but, before I got to the wood's edge, I got up and ran to him, grabbing him by his jacket's collar at the same time he threw himself at Bella. I never really knew what happened then; Laurent and I fought a little but somehow ended in the same place where we begun. With my face back to normal and him a little out of breath, I hadn't even broken out a sweat. A creak started at his jaw and went all the way down to his shoulder, it was very deep so it'd take him a few minutes to heal but that didn't mean it hurt any less. I smirked proudly at it, knowing after all this years I could still do some damage. I took a step closer to him, a little flame bursting out of my hand, ready to pulverize him then and there, when his eyes went from my hand to the edge of the woods. I turned to look at whatever was keeping his attention off of me and what I saw turned my blood to ice, the small flame in my hand died out and my heart started to beat erratically.

"This cannot be," Laurent muttered, taking a step back.

"No fucking way," I said at the same time. Bella turned to look what all the fuss was about and she turned paler than usual.

At the edge off the woods was a huge black wolf, he was growling at Laurent and showing his big fangs, fangs and teeth too big for them to belong to a normal wolf. His eyes were pitch black and didn't seem to show mercy. Then, at his flanks, more wolves stared to come out. Three, to be exact. But those were different shades of brown and gray. There was only one black wolf. I quickly walked to Bella before she did something stupid like hitting them with a rock. The black wolf charged at Laurent and the others followed him, barking and growling angrily. I watched in amazement how Laurent pushed them but they just kept getting up, Laurent wasn't as strong as he usually was because I had already hurt him so the wolves had the advantage. I had done a good job and I didn't just mean Laurent's wounds. Then, Bella gasped and tugged at my arm, making me turn.

"What?" I snapped at her and she pointed to my right.

I rolled my eyes and looked to my right, only to be met by a pair of familiar coffee brown eyes. The wolf at my side had light brown fur and was also huge but not as huge as the black one. It was staring at me intently, his eyes seeming a lot more intelligent than a wolf's normal stare, and I couldn't help but stare back at those mesmerizing brown eyes. My breath hitched in my throat just the way it did when I was with Jake. _Jacob_. The wolf's eyes were the same brown Jacob's eyes were, that's why they were so familiar. And I had only seen wolves so big twice in my life, but this couldn't be happening. I didn't have that bad luck. Suddenly, the wolf regained his focus and went back to the task on hand but this time I did not stay to watch how Laurent got killed. If what I suspected was true then Laurent's fate was sealed.

"Run, now," I told Bella as I started to make a run for it.

"But why don't you just—" She started to shout after me but I cut her off.

"Bella I swear to God, if you finish that sentence and they hear, you'll be in trouble. And you don't want me as an enemy," I warned her, momentarily stopping so I could let her know I was serious. She started to run without hesitance.

"It's not a bear!" Bella shrieked as soon as we reached her house. She was out of breath and struggling to stand but that didn't stop her from spilling the beans to his father, who was sitting in the kitchen with his friend Harry Clearwater.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Charlie said, holding one hand, which was already holding a beer, out so his daughter would slow down.

"They're wolves, I mean huge wolves! Not bears," She explained once her breathing wasn't as ragged as before.

"They're not that huge," I added, trying to not sound too desperate. Bella shot me a look but I kept my eyes on the table, not daring to meet Harry Clearwater's eyes.

"What? The brown one practically reached your shoulder. Anyway, we saw them on the woods, dad, they were after—" She faltered on her speech but jumped on track quickly. "—something."

"We didn't see what it was, exactly," I told Charlie. "There were only two; I don't think they're threatening." I lied but this time Bella didn't correct me.

"What the hell were you doing in the woods?" Charlie chastised, shaking his head.

None of us answered, Bella because she couldn't think of anything and me because I didn't want to say something that'd put the wolves in danger. I was probably overreacting, just because one beautiful wolf reminded me of my ex-boyfriend should not mean that my suspicions were right. But there were too many sighs. The rising of his body temperature, his shaking when angered, the sudden impulse he had to hurt Mike at the movie theater, his tattoo, the way he was with that group like they were a pack, how the wolves only targeted Laurent and not us.

"Are you sure of this, Bella?" Harry asked, just about the same time when I was ready to even consider my ex-boyfriend was what he probably was. It _did_ run in his family, after all.

She sent me a look Clearwater did not miss and I shook my head slightly, something the Quileute present didn't miss, either. The two men shared a look before nodding and leaving but not before Charlie told us not to leave the house until he got back. By then, it was already sundown. We retreated to Bella's room and she sat on the bed while I paced the small room. Charlie got home around nine and fell asleep loudly in the couch after telling us he hadn't found anything yet.

"Ok, what's going on?" Bella demanded after spending at least three and a half hours doing nothing but watching me pace and think. "Why did you defend those animals?"

"Because they might not be animals," I muttered. I stopped and turned to face her. She had a puzzled look on her face that suggested she thought I was crazy.

"What? Mia, of course they're animals."

I sat down and ran a hand through my long black hair, nervously starting to braid it. Halfway through the braid, I sighed and said:

"Well, they have tails and four legs and paws and a lot of fur. So yeah, I guess you could say they're physically animals but…" I trailed off. Saying it out loud made it real and I didn't want it to be real.

"But?" she pried but I changed subject.

"Jacob's not the first Black I've met and found an interest in," I said. "The first time I came here with The Cullens, I met his great-grandfather. He was the leader of the tribe by then and a protector. He knew what I was, what the Cullens were," I finished my braid and undid it, starting again. It was a nervous tick more than anything, really. Bella was completely absorbed with my story, however, so she didn't notice.

"Efrain said I had betrayed him, that I had betrayed his tribe by sympathizing with the enemy. I tried to explain how they were different from the others but he wasn't fully convinced. That's how we came around the idea of a treaty, so there wouldn't be war. I wrote it because I was an old friend of the Quileute tribe and because I now lived with the Cullens. I knew them both well," I finished talking and undid the third braid I had made this far.

That was the last time Efrain Black had ever talked to me and now almost a hundred years later I was in love with his great-grandson. Oh, I bet he was seething on his grave.

"What do you mean an old friend of the tribe and what's a protector?" Bella asked after a few minutes. I was guessing she'd been rounding my words around in her head.

"Forks and I go a long way back, even before it was even called that," I shrugged. "Somehow I always end up coming back here, no matter how many years pass," I added, grouchily and completely avoiding her second question.

Bella opened her mouth but a little _tack_ sound against the window made her close her mouth. The sound happened again and we both stood up, slowly walking to the window.

"Do you think is Victoria?" she whispered to me nervously.

"Do you really think she'd knocked if she was here?" I scoffed.

"' hey, girl! I'ma kill ya right now so open the window for me, won't ya, sweetie pie?" I asked sarcastically, putting on a southern accent. I focused on the outside and frowned when I heard a heartbeat, walking to the window I opened it and leaned in.

"What in hell are you doing here?" I whisper-yelled at the figure standing by the tree, which was next to Bella's window.

"Who is it?" Bella asked, curiosity getting the best of her and making her forget she was irritated at me for mocking her. She walked to the window and leaned in, I had walked away from it.

"Jacob?" she asked, baffled.

"I'm coming in," he told her so she moved out of the window and gave him space.

A few seconds later he was smoothly sliding into the room through the window. He wasn't wearing a shirt, just his trousers and sneakers. The air around us shifted and I crossed my arms over my chest, looking him straight in the eye challengingly. No way was he intimidating me again. I was almost sure I knew why he had broken up with me and the fact that he probably did it because he was forced to was a little reassuring but he had still hurt me with his words.

"I'm gonna leave you two alone," Bella muttered and left the room but none of us turned to look at her.


	19. Chapter 19

**_Chapter 19:_**

"Hey," Jacob said a lot more relaxed than at his house yesterday but I wasn't falling for it.

He took a step toward me but I stopped him by putting a hand in his naked chest. This time I didn't recoil from the heat, I was expecting it; instead I moved my hand so it'd cover more of his smooth skin.

"Look I'm sorry," He told me, putting his hands in the air. His words were enough for me to snap back to my senses and remove my hand from his body.

"What for, exactly?" I blinked up at him, raising a perfect black eyebrow.

"I messed up, all right? I'm sorry." He did look sorry. "I shouldn't have said what I did, I—"

"Yeah, you shouldn't have," I cut him off, my lips forming a thin line, my eyes darting to anywhere but him. I could feel the tears stinging the back of my eyelids and I didn't want to cry in front of him.

"I wish I could explain but I can't," he said to me.

His voice was still calm; no sigh of bitterness what-so-ever but it took me a moment to meet his eyes again. So much like the wolf's eyes.

"You can explain it to _me_." I insisted. I already knew his secret, if it was what I thought it was and it had to be.

"I literally can't." he ran a hand though his short hair and walked further into the room.

"Have you ever had a secret, one that you couldn't tell anyone?" he asked as he stood by the bed.

Thoughts of my family, my marriage, who I was, my sister, the Cullens, the reason why his tribe and I went way back came into my mind and I looked down, ashamed.

"One that wasn't yours to tell," He continued.

"I have thousands of them," I said, daring to look up. He nodded and sat on the bed.

"Then you know what it's like to me but worse," He said, darkly.

The bitterness slowly creeping into his eyes and voice. That wasn't good, I knew enough about bitterness to know that it could destroy a person completely.

"You have no idea how tight I'm bound," He said, looking sideways. I actually did have a pretty good idea but I decided not to mention it.

"Ok, I hate this," I muttered.

I couldn't take it any longer so I walked up to him and pulled at his hair. Even though, I loved his short hair I hated it was cut because of his _situation. _Taking his face on my hands I lifted it up so he had no other choice but to meet my eyes.

"What do you hate?" he said through gritted teeth, obviously thinking I was referring to him.

"I hate _them_ for this, this bitterness that laces your voice and covers your gorgeous brown eyes every time you speak of it," I said softly.

It wasn't supposed to be a curse but they were making it look like one, they were making him feel it was one.

"It's not their fault." His face and tone softened as he grabbed my hands and took them off his face, he kept one between his fingers. _It's yours._ A voice said in my head.

"And what kills me is that I already told you!" he exclaimed, getting to his feet again and letting go of my hand. I blinked up at him. He hadn't told me, I would remember.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" I asked, truly lost now. He hadn't told me, ever.

"My secret," He answered impatiently. "What I—what I am." He faltered a little and I frowned. Ok, so was he talking about the secret I knew or about another one? I didn't get it.

"Antoinette, do you remember the day we met? We walked down the beach at La push and I told you…" he started, waiting for me to fill in the blanks and I tried, really, but that day he had told me about the cold ones, nothing more.

"The stories about The Cold Ones." I wrinkled my nose at the name and racked my brain for something else. "And something about a great flood." That's what he had told me, nothing else.

"I can't believe that's the part you remember, the flood." He chuckle humorlessly. "I need to know, though. Was I really the first person to tell you what they were? Did you really not know you were living with monsters?"

I glared up at him, not appreciating his mocking tone at all, and scoffed. "Of course I knew. That didn't mean I'd go around telling everyone the story, I was supposed to find out what Bella knew."

"See what I mean about loyalty?" he raised an eyebrow.

He walked past me, toward Bella's dresses by the window. He put his fingers between the bridge of his nose and pressed, I crossed my arms.

"There's gotta be something you can do. There's always a way out." I started to say but he cut me off immediately.

"no." he snapped at me. "I'm in it for life; it's a life sentence…longer maybe." His words gave me a flashback, taking me back to a time were I was still an Egyptian beauty.

_"I believe they should not age. That way there will always be an army ready." My sister suggested to me as she poured a bright yellow liquid into the cauldron._

_"Yes, yes, but they should be able to stop whenever they want to. No one wants to live forever; eventually they will want to pass away. I do not wish for it to be a life sentence." I told her and she nodded in agreement. We were speaking in Greek so the tribute members present with us in the cave wouldn't understand what we were saying. _

_"What should they turn into? They are mere humans; their skin is not strong enough to face a vampire's wrath. No matter how much of their magic and ours we use." My sister wondered, glancing at the tribe's chief that was looking at us gloomily. _

_My eyes traveled around the men and the cave. The chief had a little wolf carving hanging from his neck and at least a wolf or two were lazily hanging around the cave without hurting the men and women._

_"Wolves are sacred to them; it would be an honor to be brothers with them." I turned to my sister with a smile._

_We descend from wolves and they're our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them._ Suddenly, Jacob's voice months ago echoed inside my mind and I gasped slightly. He _had_ told me but I had been so focused on the other story I hadn't paid attention at the slight insinuation of him being a wolf, I already knew that story. He looked up at me when he heard my faint gasp and I recovered quickly, shaking my head.

"Maybe we should leave, just you and me." I suggested to him.

"You would do that for me?" he asked, suddenly hopeful.

"My feelings for you haven't changed overnight, Jake." I took a step closer, a small sad smile playing at my lips.

He stared to consider, I knew he did but he seemed to remember what his responsibilities with his people were because he shook his head.

"I can't, but I would run away with you if I could, in a heartbeat." He told me.

A flash of the old Jake covered his features and I knew he was still there somewhere. He was just hidden, locked away. Probably thanks to Sam and his wrong tactics, I wondered if the others were as bitter as he was becoming.

"I gotta go or they'll wonder where I am." He said reluctantly. He walked up to me and sighed, running a hand through his short hair.

"Try to remember tonight. You can come visit me tomorrow or call me if you don't want to see me. You won't after you find out."

"What if I already know?" I asked him, tilting my head upwards so I could meet his troubled gaze. I did know.

"Call me tomorrow." He then engulfed me in his arms and I physically relaxed, putting my arms around his neck and closing my eyes.

"Please, try to remember. You have no idea of how much I need you right now. It'd be so much easier if you knew." He muttered against my hair before letting go off me and walking to the window.

"Jacob, wait." I called after him but he jumped off the window without a second glance.

I was trying to tell him I did know. And after seeing him run into the woods like jumping off of a window was the most common thing ever, I realized there was no denying it any further. My ex-boyfriend was a wolf and he needed me with him. I didn't know how much he'd need me when he found out I was responsible for it.


	20. Chapter 20

**_Chapter 21: _**

"You have to be kidding," Bella said. "He's not a wolf, Mia, it's impossible."

"As impossible as Edward being a vampire? As impossible as me being a hybrid?" I demanded, twirling around to face her.

It was 4 A.M. now and ever since Jake left I had told Bella everything, and when I say everything, I mean _everything._ She knew everything, except for one thing here and there, but apart from that I had told her every little piece of information I had on the wolves.

"So you're telling me that the brown wolf, the one that stared at you, was Jake? Your boyfriend Jake?" Bella asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes."

I sighed and sat down next to her on the bed. Charlie's snores reached us from across the wall but apart from that everything was quiet. In two hours I'd be able to drive down to the reservation and tell Jake that I knew, admit my guilt, and beg him to forget all that and take me back because I loved him. I was praying to God, he'd listen to me after I told him what I had to.

"And what do we do now?" Bella asked again.

"Now, we wait. We wait until is early enough for us to go down and tell him we're not scared… unless you are?" I hesitated in the last moment.

I had been so caught up in my own world I hadn't stopped to think what Bella thought of all this. Was she scared? Repulsed? I didn't know.

"I'm not scared… I just don't know," she said.

We waited until it was a good hour and then left to the reservation. When we reached the small red house it was already seven A.M. I knocked on the door quickly, glancing at Bella every once in a while. Until now, she hadn't run away for the hills but she wore a deep frown on her face. The door opened and we were received by Billy Black on his wheelchair. He looked up at us with a severe expression. He only glanced at Bella for a moment before training his burning gaze on me.

"I thought I told you to leave and never come back," he told me.

"Yes, well, I've never been one to do as told." I shrugged. "Now, may I come in so I can talk to your son?" I asked.

He immediately shook his head. "No, you aren't coming into my house. He's asleep, finally. And you are no good to him."

Bella bit her lip while I searched in his face for a way out, something that would allow him to let me in. I tried to step in but he rolled backwards and stopped me. I frowned but didn't lose my patience. He had to give in eventually.

"Billy, I love him." I confessed. His eyes widened but he still didn't move. I leaned in a bit, seeing he was about to crack, and said the last thing. "And I know what he is and I know what they all are… I think you should know, I've never been prouder of all of you. And I also know word is getting around about a wolf hurting people, they want to hunt this wolf down—I will _never_ let anyone hurt them."

Billy considered me for a moment before rolling backwards and letting a space for us to go in. I smiled at him gratefully and then walked past him, Bella quick behind me, until I reached Jacob's door. I hesitated for a moment before opening the door softly and entering. Jacob was sprawled out in his bed, one of his arms flung out and hanging, his fingertips almost touching the floorboards. I noticed how in said hand was my braided bracelet, the one I had let behind. I allowed myself a small smiled and sat in the edge of the bed; my finger moved on their own accord and brushed the hair away from his forehead.

"Maybe we should let him sleep," Bella said quietly.

"yes," I hummed.

Then some shouts brought our attention to the outside. At the edge of the woods, the same boys from the other day were calling out to Jacob. I was able to recognize Sam and Embry. So that's why he had stopped talking to Jake and Quill. The other's boys remained unknown to me. Bella glared at them and went out of the room quickly. I panicked and followed after her.

"Bella, no, you don't get it!" I called after her.

She didn't listen to me; instead she stared to run outside. I ran after her. The pack was nearing us as well. I shook my head. This was not going to end well. The pack and we ended up meeting halfway to the house. The house to our back, the forest, to theirs. The same tall guy that caught Jake and I was in the middle of the group and stood up a little. That only meant one thing: he was the leader of the pack. This was the infamous Sam Uley. He didn't glare at me but I could tell he was close to. I simply looked at him coldly. To his right were two other guys I did not recognize and to his left was no other that Embry Call. I didn't understand this. When the hell did Embry turned?

"What did you do?" Bella asked Sam as she shoved him back.

"Hey!" the guy right next to Sam complained.

I turned to him and my eyes widened. He wasn't exactly friendly looking. He was almost as tall and fit as Sam but not that much. He was sneering at Bella and, luckily, hadn't noticed me yet. Sam stretched an arm out to stop him from coming forward. Bella didn't even flinch, which proved my theory. She didn't think they were wolves.

"Easy," he ordered.

"He didn't want this."Bella exclaimed.

"What did we do? What did he do, uh? What did he tell you?" the other guy, the angry-looking one, demanded.

"Nothing, he tells me nothing because he's afraid of you!" Bella exclaimed loudly.

I grabbed Bella's sleeve and tried to make her step back but she wouldn't let me. This seemed to bring their attention to me. The other three guys turned to look at me and I saw as recognition flashed through their eyes. I thought they were going to yell at me, but all they did was look back at Bella then at each other and burst out laughing, loudly. I almost laughed to. Jacob was obviously not afraid of them. Bella didn't find it funny, though. She walked up to the angry-looking guy, avoiding my hand, and slapped him across the face. I gasped so loudly, Bella turned to me with a confused look. Sam immediately turned to the other guy, trying to calm him down but it was too late now.

"Too late now," another guy I didn't know said, voicing my thoughts.

"Are you out of your mind?" I exclaimed. "Have you really learned nothing? You don't hit a wolf _on the face_! No, scratch that; you_ don't_ hit a wolf, _period._" I scowled.

This was unbelievable. She was definitely the kind of person who would have offered herself to Anubis and sacrificed herself in a bloody ritual. But then I faltered on my speech because Bella wasn't paying attention to me. Her eyes were stuck to the pack. I turned again to see that Sam hadn't been able to clam the other guy down and he was literally trembling with rage. That only meant one thing: he was about to phase.

"Oh, this is such a great morning." I muttered under my breath as I started to push Bella backwards.

"Marie Antoinette, get her out of here." Sam told me.

"I'm trying," I replied, annoyed.

I knew it was too late, anyway. Right as my words came out of my mouth, the guy transformed into this huge grey wolf that showed its fangs and growled furiously at Bella. Even the hairs at the back of my neck stood up, that's why I didn't complain the moment Bella took off running toward the house. Jake showed up then, fully awake and very aware of the situation going outside.

"Jacob, run!" Bella called out to him.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, while Embry shook his head and muttered: "is she really this dense?" I didn't have time to reply to him because in that moment Bella tripped, typical, and Jacob literally jumped and transformed in the air, right above her, so he could face grumpy over here, who was already a wolf. My jaw hanged open. I had never seen someone transform in the air, Jacob was definitely a Black. Bella's face was one of complete shock. I couldn't help it, I laughed. The guy standing next to Sam heard me and let out a chuckle as well. The two wolves confronted each other, they snapped at each other, launched at each other and, somehow, ended up tumbling down the little slope and into the deep forest.

"Get them to Emily's!" Sam yelled at the other two before running after the two wolves.

"And the wolf's out of the bag!" Embry joked. I laughed.

"About time, don't you think?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

The other guy neared us and smiled at me, letting his hand out. "I'm Jared, by the way."

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm—"

"Antoinette, yeah, we know." He interrupted me as he let go of my hand. Embry and Jared shared a look before looking over at Bella, who look like she was about to throw up.

"Bella, are you okay? Or do you want me to find you a bucket to throw up in?" I asked her slowly, as if talking to a child.

She looked at me before looking at the other two with widened eyes. I waited patiently for her to speak, she didn't. Then laughter filled the air. I turned to Embry with a raised eyebrow; he was laughing openly at Bella's expression.

"That's something you don't see everyday," he commented, looking back at the forest and trying to control his laughter.

"Sure I do, every single day." Jared grumbled.

"Aw, Paul doesn't lose his temper every day." Embry grinned. "Maybe two out of three."

So grumpy's name was Paul. I laughed a little at the joke. But Jared didn't seem to find it funny and neither did Bella. She still looked like she was about to throw up. The boys followed my gaze and seemed to realize Bella was still here.

"You won't faint or anything, will you?" Jared asked her.

"I—I don't think so," Bella said, her eyes widened.

"Oh, man, Jake should've warned us." Embry shook his head.

"Yeah, you don't just bring your best friend and your girlfriend into this. What did he expect?" Jared replied, his eyes going to me.

I blinked at both of them, confused. They thought I didn't know?

"Um… I already knew… I mean before he told me." I corrected. Both boys looked at me like I had grown a second head. I frowned. "Wait, you don't know who I am? Apart from Jake's girlfriend?" they both shook their heads in answer. I rolled my eyes. these people had a serious problem with history.

"No, why?" Embry asked me, suddenly excited.

"Ask Sam when he gets back."

"Can you stop acting like this is great? What if they hurt each other? aren't you worried at all?" Bella asked us, freaked.

"Mmm, no?" I shrugged.

"Why would we?" Embry blinked, surprised.

"They could get hurt!"

The two boys started laughing loudly, which made Bella frown in disagreement and made me giggle. Jacob was visibly larger than Paul; I doubted he'd get actually get hurt.

"I hope Paul gets a mouthful of him, teach him a lesson." Embry shrugged. I gasp.

"Hey!" I shoved him a little, knowing he wouldn't even budge.

"Sorry," he flinched.

"Yeah, right." Jared scoffed. "Don't worry, Marie. Jake's a natural, he saw Paul and it took him… what? Ten seconds to react and attack back? Not even Sam can do that."

I smiled, knowing he was right. Jake was a direct descendant from the first Quileute ever to become a wolf, no one could be as powerful as he was. It had only been a matter of time before he phased, I hadn't wanted to admit that. I also noticed the way he said my name. No Marie Antoinette, simply Marie, like we've known each other forever. That made me wonder how much of my and Jacob's relationship had he seen through Jake's mind.

"Paul's been fighting longer. Ten bucks he leaves a mark." Embry replied.

"You're on, Jake's got a gift." They shook hands while I bit my bottom lip.

"I want in too. I bet Jacob leaves him a wound so deep it'll take Paul until sundown to heal."

They looked at me before sharing a glance. They looked back at me and grinned.

"All right. you sure, though? that's a very specific bet, we don't want Jake kicking our asses because his girlfriend made a bet she couldn't afford." Jared teased. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Yes. Now, let's go before Bella really faints." I ordered.

"Right," Jared looked at Bella. She was still sitting dumbly on the floor, but she wasn't as in shock as she was before. "Mind giving us a drive?"

"No problem," she choked.

"Maybe you should drive." Jared suggested to Embry.

"Yeah, where are the keys?" he asked.

"Ignition," Bella said immediately.

The guys hauled her up from the ground and we all started to walk to the truck. Embry opened the door to the passenger seat for Bella and helped her in.

"In you go," he told her. Then, he seemed to realize there wasn't much space left and there were still three people out of the truck. "You'll have to ride in the back." He told us, frowning.

I frowned and looked down at myself. These shoes and my dress were expensive. God, even my tights were. But Embry was huge too and he took a lot of space and, if I was honest, I didn't exactly want Bella to throw up on me. Ugh, how selfish that sounded.

"It's okay, I have a weak stomach and I don't want to be there when she throws up." Jared said, not upset at all.

Embry got in and started the ignition while Jared helped me up in the bed of the truck. He got in beside me and the truck started to move.

"So how did Jacob get around the injunction anyway?" Embry asked Bella but I could hear him perfectly and I knew Jared could as well.

"Er… what?" Bella asked back.

"The order, you know, to not spill the beans." Embry elaborated.

"Oh, that. He didn't, he talked to Mia and she explained things to me." Bella hesitated.

I leaned over and looked at them through the small window in the windshield. "He reminded me of something he had told me eons ago. and said a bunch of stuff about you guys and that it wasn't your fault. I joined the dots. He never disobeyed the order." I explained Embry.

"I suppose that'd work." He shrugged.

I returned to the back and sat down in front of Jared. He smiled at me but I knew the air around us would soon turn to awkward. I didn't know this guy at all.

"So," I started. "Who is Emily?"

"Oh, that's Sam's girlfriend," Jared perched up on his seat. "Well, fiancé now, I guess. The guys will meet us back there… you know, after Sam gives it to them for that scene and finds them some clothes. _If_ Paul has any left."

I felt bad for Paul. That was bad. Sometimes I forgot that the Quileutes were actually humble people that didn't have much; while I had everything. That had to change.

"are you guys okay about the black-haired guy at the meadow? He didn't look friendly but…" Jared changed the subject to one that wasn't that dangerous.

"Are you kidding me? Laurent was an ass; and I literally fell in love with all of you. My God, I had never seen a pack so coordinated." I paused, noticing Jared's grin. "Just to clarify I didn't _fall in love_ with you, it's an expression. What I meant is that you were really cool. I suppose Sam's the black one, right? And Paul is grey and Jake is brown. What color are you?... sorry, I'm ranting." I finished, covering my face with my hands.

"It's all right," He laughed. I looked up to him, laughing too. "I'm brown too, just darker than Jake. And Embry over there is grey with black dots here and there."

I nodded, already picturing them in the clearing. Jared had flashed by me in a flash and had been, after Sam, the first to reach Laurent. Embry had been next to Jake when they all appeared at the edge of the forest, while Paul had been next to Jared.

"Can I ask you something? Before you and the vampire noticed us, you had fire in your hand. But that's impossible because you weren't in pain or anything, and now you don't have a wound. I told Sam but he brushed it off like it was nothing." He told me.

My heart beat accelerated. No one had said anything about it so I thought they hadn't noticed. Apparently, Jared had. And he was now questioning me about it. I took a deep breath in, making up my mind. They would know, sooner or later. Sam would have to tell them and I would have to tell Jake now.

"I—all right, all right," I sat up straight and wished this drive would end soon. But Bella's truck was slower than ever and I knew we were at least halfway. "Promise me you will not tell Jacob, at least not yet." I waited until he nodded before continuing. "I'm a witch and a Veela. I can control the elements; that's why I had a flame on my hand and didn't burn."

"Veela? I thought they were extinct." Embry's voice reached us from the inside of the car.

"They are, except for me and my sister." I answered, my tone a little sad. "As I said before, ask Sam. He knows everything and I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you all." I couldn't help the bit of sarcasm that laced to my voice.

Luckily though, we reached Emily's house faster than I thought. It was a tiny house that once was grey. It only had one narrow window next to the weathered door and under it were yellow and orange marigolds that made the sad house a cheerful look. Embry turned the car off and got out, Bella followed him. She hadn't thrown up but she didn't speak at all the entire way here.

"Emily's cooking," Embry said as he inhaled the air deeply.

Jared got out and helped me out as well. They went into the house like it was their own and Bella followed but I hesitated for a moment. This was Sam Uley's home. It wasn't his house but it was definitely _home._ I didn't like him much, he didn't like me much. I felt like I was crossing an invisible line by entering his home. Bella hesitated when he didn't see me and turned to me. The boys did the same.

"Don't worry, it's okay. Come on in." Jared told me. He then grinned and added: "We won't bite."

"Speak for yourself," Embry joked.

I laughed and shook my head, walking toward them. Bella shot me a look but I couldn't read into it. The main room of the house, like Jake's, was the kitchen. In it, a young woman with coppery skin and long straight black hair was pulling muffins out of the oven. We watched as she put the tray in the counter and pulled a paper plate to put them on.

"Hey, you're home." She told us, or well, she told the boys. She took one muffin very carefully and put it on the plate before continuing to do so.

"Hi, Em." Both of the boys said at the same time before sitting down on the table.

"You guys hungry? Like I have to ask." She turned to face us and it took all of my willpower not to stare.

Emily was gorgeous but three long scars marked her face from her hairline all down to her collarbone where it disappeared under her skin. I had a feeling they didn't end there. She looked straight at me and her smile widened.

"Oh, are you Marie?" she asked me.

"Yes," I smiled. "It's great to meet you."

"Oh, no, dear. It's great to meet you; you've been a common topic around here for some time now." She explained to me and the boys chuckled at some kind of inner joke. "Do you want a muffin?" she offered.

"Please."

She grabbed one big blueberry muffin and handed it to me. Then she seemed to realize Bella was here. Her face morphed into a surprised expression; apparently she didn't expect to see anyone aside from me.

"Who's this?" she asked.

"Bella Swan." Jared replied as he took one muffin from the tray.

"So you're the vampire girl?" Emily asked, her smile gone.

"Yes, are you the werewolf girl?" Bella asked back, a little guarded.

"I guess, I mean I'm engaged to one." She answered excitedly. I smiled brightly at her. "Leave it to Jake to find a way around the gag order." She continued, looking at me.

"I already knew." I repeated for the tenth time.

Emily nodded and then turned to the guys, her entire face warming as she looked at them.

"Where's Sam?" she asked them.

"With Jake and Paul. You should've seen it, Em, Bella slapped Paul on the face and well, you know what happened next." Embry explained. "And suddenly Jacob jumps in the air and phases right in the air, saving Bella from the big bad wolf."

Emily shook her head, as if disappointed. "Ah, Paul." She paused for a moment. "Do you think they'll be long? I was about to start cooking breakfast." She informed us.

"Don't worry, if they get here late, we won't let anything go to waste." Jared said. I laughed and sat down on the table, finishing my muffin. Embry was already finishing his second.

"I don't doubt that." Emily smiled, then, noticing that Embry was already starting his third muffin, she hit him lightly in the back of the head. "Save some for your brothers!" she scowled.

Bella's eyes widened at this but the boys didn't seem to be bother about it, and neither was I. They were a pack, a family; it was naturally that they'd call each other brothers. I watched as they all behaved like a real family: Jared and Embry joked around while Emily took everything out of the fridge to make breakfast. It had been a while since I had been in an environment like this and, surprisingly enough, I felt part of it. The guys would fill me in the conversation from time to time and I would laugh at their jokes. Bella, though, had moved to the counter and leaned into it and hadn't said a word. Emily got several eggs out of the fridge and started to cook them. When she rolled up her sleeves so they wouldn't get eggs on them, I saw my prediction had been right: the scars marked her arm and hand as well. Then, the door opened and Sam stepped in. he glanced at me first and my smile dropped. In his eyes was the same judgment I'd find on Billy's eyes. He knew _everything_. He didn't look at me for long, though.

"Emily," he said and his voice had so much love that I knew Emily wasn't just his fiancée. He had imprinted on her.

He walked up to her in one long stride and took her face in his hands, kissing her scar multiple times before kissing her full on the lips. Bella looked away almost immediately but I smiled at them with nostalgia. That's what I had wanted for them, for the wolves, and, apparently the love potion number 5 had worked perfectly. Sam would never be miserable because he had Emily. She was his world and, as much as I disliked Sam, I was happy for him.

"Hey, none of that," Embry complained. "I'm eating."

"Then shut up and eat." Sam replied before kissing Emily's ruined mouth.

I felt a pang on my chest at the image. I didn't understand it at first but it suddenly clicked into place. Sam kissed her scars more than the rest of her face because he wished he could kiss them away, make them disappear. Sam felt guilty about hurting Emily forever.

Then Paul and Jacob entered the house, laughing good-naturally. Paul shoved him and, in return, Jake elbowed him. They both laughed again. Jacob scanned the room; his eyes fell on Bella for less than a second before he found me. He seemed surprised to see that I was comfortably sitting on the table with the other two. Not feeling out of place, at all. He walked to me and gave a hesitant smile. He walked to stand behind me and leaned on the back of my chair. As he leaned in to grab a muffin, I noticed he still had my braided bracelet on. Luckily and magically, it hadn't been torn to pieces when he phased.

"Hey, are you okay?" he whispered in my ear. "Not freaked out at all? Not repulsed?"

I turned my face to look at him. I hadn't missed the bitterness in his voice, even though he was trying hard to mask it. I wasn't repulsed, I wasn't angry. I was hurt. Hurt because he had been treating me like shit, hurt because he hadn't bothered to call me and explain things, hurt because he hadn't had the balls to at least break up with me the right way and instead waited for me to show up. I was sure that if I hadn't gone down to the reservation, he would've done nothing, he simply would've let me hanging. And just like that, I wasn't relieved that he was here with me, I wasn't happy that I knew his secret or that the pack seemed to take me in like an old friend. I was angry, no, I was livid.

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you." I replied and turned back to the others.

"Oh, no, man!" Embry cried.

He was looking at Paul's arm where a long pink line was. I grinned, knowing I had won the bet.

"Yeah, ten dollars, baby!" Jared cheered but I cleared my throat.

"Excuse me? I said Jake would leave him a mark that wouldn't fade until sundown. That won't fade until sundown, so, actually, you both own me ten dollars." I smiled sweetly at them.

They looked at each other and back to me with a shocked expression. I lifted my eyebrow expectantly. They looked into their pockets and gave me a ten each.

"Thank you very much," I said as I folded the bills and put them in my bra.

"Wait, you bet I'd win?" Jacob asked, surprised, and for a moment I could see the Jacob I fell in love with.

"Yep." I answered.

We looked at each other for a moment. I noticed how everyone in the room turned their attention to us but I didn't mind, no matter what happened they would eventually find out. There were no secrets in a pack, I knew that very well.

"We need to talk," Jacob started.

"Yes… but I think you should explain things to Bella first. The three of us should talk." I retorted.

Bella looked up at the mention of her name. Jake looked at her before nodding and walking to the door, Bella followed him quickly.

"Guys, remember what I said," I told Embry and Jared before getting up and following Jacob and Bella.


	21. Chapter 21

**_A/N: so, before you guys say anything, if you know about Egiptyan history, you'd know none of the characters I'm about to say lived in the same years. some were contemporary to each other but they werent necesarily direct family. the thing is I love them all, and, seeing as though I didnt exactly know all the names of all the members of the family and well, they were all pretty much immortals, let's just pretend that they were all brothers and sisters. please. anyway, this is the only time when I'll mention this so don't pay much mind to it. also, i'd like to apologize for the mistakes on the last chapter. I'm about to fix them. sorry. _**

**_Chapter 22: _**

"So… you're a werewolf, uh?" Bella awkwardly commented making both Jacob and I roll our eyes.

"Last time I checked." He spat at her making her flinch slightly.

I started to walk a little faster towards the shore; arms crossed across my chest, and left them behind. I still could hear them, though.

"You have to stop, I mean it's wrong." Bella told him, confusing me.

How could it be wrong? It's not like he can help it. It runs in his blood, it would happen one time or another.

"What? I'm not the kind of monster you like? You didn't seem to have trouble with the bloodsuckers." He said angrily.

_Or with me._ I silently said, suddenly very interested as to where this was heading.

"B—but you've killed people Jake! They've never hurt anyone!" she yelled, making me turn around immediately.

_Wrong again, Bella. _I thought before saying: "They haven't killed anyone! God, Bella what the hell?" I cut into their conversation startling both of them.

"What? Then who has?" she frowned and directed the question to both of us, waiting for the first one to answer.

"Oh, come on! I thought you were smarter. Laurent has and probably Victoria too." I explained her exasperatedly. "They attacked us, remember? And then they killed him." I added.

Her frown relaxed into a look of understatement and she blushed, embarrassed. I can't believe I hadn't put the pieces together. It was so obvious! Jacob's body temperature gets higher than 40 ºC and then he completely disappears claiming to have mono? Then when I finally went to see him, he's in the middle of a fucking storm—without a shirt, May I add—with his hair cut and a freaking tattoo? If that isn't a red alarm I don't know what is—oh! And let's not forget about how some huge wolves came out of nowhere to our rescue—not that we needed it anyway, I had everything under control—and how one of them simply looked me in the eye with those beautiful brown eyes that simply made me melt, I mean come on! You don't melt under a normal wolf's stare, that's just plain creepy! I should've known before.

I should've figured it all out the day he broke up with me but I guess I was into denial because I knew what that meant. I had made a promise to Carlisle, so long ago the memory was almost blurry; I had promised him I wouldn't date Jacob if he phased. And when the sighs started to appear, my brain simply shut them off, ignored them.

"Where do you fit in this story? I mean you know a hell lot of stuff and you lived with the bloodsuckers." Jacob asked me and I ignored the 'bloodsuckers' part.

I looked over and Bella who was looking at me with a pointed look that practically screamed 'tell him now!', I shook my head while she nodded and we did that little battle for about two minutes until I snapped.

"Fine! Ok, I'll talk," I said loudly. Jacob frowned at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Ugh, please don't look at me like that." I said bitterly. "I'm a witch." I shrugged and then smiled innocently at the both of them, hoping that he'd be happy with that and that it'd be the end of it. I already knew it was mere wishful thinking.

"How is that even possible?" Jacob asked without looking at me.

"I don't know. How are _you_ possible?" I said sarcastically.

"Mia… explain." Bella said demandingly.

She apparently was sick of my avoiding of the subject or maybe she wasn't used to see Jacob and me acting cold to each other, I wasn't. I raised my hands up.

"All right, all right." I told her, making Jacob chuckle. Yeah? Let's see if you keep laughing once I'm over. I took a deep breath.

"First, you have to understand that this happened thousands of years ago, even before the Romans or Greeks and before Jesus Christ was born. In that time supernatural creatures and humans lived in harmony but there was dark and light. I, unfortunately, was born in the dark.

«My parents were both mere-people, with a lot of magic. But with one problem: they were good. They didn't approve of the mere-people's behavior; they thought that the humans were kind and worth befriending. They didn't like having to feed off them. There were a few mere-people who thought the same way but were too afraid of expressing their thoughts, my father, however, was brave, so he spoke his mind up. The king hunted him and my mother down and they ran through the 7 seas; their fellow friends and the people who shared the same thoughts they did, gave them shelter but just for two nights no more no less. After 6 hundred years of running, they finally found a place where they and some others could not be disturbed. Unfortunately it didn't last long and all of them were discovered by the king."

I started walking around the beach with them following closely behind. I wondered about how this would affect mine and Jacob's relationship, would we be together again? I was not sure, if he broke up with me because Sam ordered him and I was supposed to be an innocent human, that's ok; but now that he'd know I'm nothing but a monster he'd still break up with me and not just because Sam said so. Although if Sam had my book, he must know about me and if he did then this war was already lost.

"My mother whose gift was taking and giving life, had a spell that could allow them to live on the land; that's how they got out off the water and started living on the land. That's how the veela specie was born." I continued, looking out at the sea longingly. "They traveled a lot, trying to find any kind of living creatures and they didn't find one until they came across a little village near a river—the only river that there was on this area—the village had a population of about 900 people with tan skin, black eyes and dark brown hair, and they happened to be wizards, they took them in and were intrigued by their story; they new that most mermaids were killers but my parents and the rest of the group promised they were not. The years came and went and soon they had created a civilization, with my mother and father as king and queen, they decided to call it the great Egypt. One year my mother discovered she was pregnant and 9 months later gave birth to two beautiful girls; what surprised my dad the most was that this girls had black hair and I'm not talking about dark brown hair, no, their hair was pitch black; that was the only weird thing they had, for the rest of them was complete veela." I told them carefully.

Nobody knew this, only Carlisle and it felt nice to be able to finally let it all out but I was honestly worried about their reaction, Bella already knew I was dangerous but Jacob didn't and I was really scared of his reaction.

"Wait, wait," Bella interrupted. "You said it took them six hundred years to find somewhere. And then you said they built and entire civilization. Shouldn't they have died?"

"No… you see, mermaids and such can live pretty much forever unless someone kills them directly. When my mother died she was five thousands years old and didn't look older than 30." I elaborated.

"And I guess that's why you're here," Jacob jumped in.

I looked at him for a moment, hoping he'd be the same as always. But there was some uncertainty in his eyes that killed my hopes right on the spot. He wasn't sure about me yet.

"Not exactly… My mother had a secret she could never tell but that she ended telling anyway; those girls weren't her husband's. She had had an affair with a wizard and ended up 's how the hybrids appeared. My father didn't learn this until I was thirteen I think, my sister and I were the oldest of our sisters, which meant we had to fight to earn our power and see who would be the one to marry the future king. That fight was to death, I wasn't fond of the idea because I knew Anaksunamun didn't stand a chance but I fought anyway and in the last moment, I let her win."

They both gasped—Bella's gasp louder than Jacob's—and Bella was the only one of them who dared to ask: "Your own sister killed you?"

I stopped walking and turn to look at her.

"No, she didn't kill me, I just let her disarm me; I thought she'd stop... I was wrong. When she was about to kill me I did something only a witch could do, I protected myself by creating a protective circle, I had seen Elijah, who was the wizard at our service, use it and when I was at risk the words were the first thing that came to my mind. My father went into a rage fit and, giving in to his nature, killed half our servants. I had never seen him like that; my mother lately told us the truth and confessed that Elijah had been his lover for the last 14 years. Dad turned his back on us after that and he never spoke to me again. My sister develop her powers 2 weeks after that and Elijah became our teacher. Those were the happiest moments of my life until when I was 17 strange things started happening…" I stopped there and hesitated as to how continue.

How do I tell them that I was actually married? This would definitely be awkward. I ran a hand through my hair and looked out at the sea. Today wasn't that cloudy and it was pretty cool, the air hit my face and made my hair go crazy behind me, making it get in my face once or twice.

"I had been… married off when I was 16 years old to the Persian prince, he was nice I guess but I never loved him and no more than a year later, he died at war. Seeing as though I was supposed to be devastated, they sent me back home and that's when things went down." I explained with a shrug and the occasional eye roll.

Jacob's face was emotionless but his eyes were a complete different story. I knew he was still surprised over the fact that his six month girlfriend was pretty much 3 millenniums older than him and that not only was she a witch but she was also a very dangerous creature who could kill him if she wanted to. Oh, and she had also gotten married already.

"People started to die mysteriously and when the bodies were found they were drained of blood, the habitants blamed the mere-people but it wasn't them because when a mermaid kills she eats organs, blood, flesh, muscle everything except the bones. We can even feed on your soul," I continued after the little pause where I examined the boy I loved. "They were vampire attacks, somewhere along the way they had appeared and were haunting my empire; we didn't pay mind to it until a vampire killed my little brother, Nathaniel.—the ancients discovered vampires were pretty much invincible but as everyone they had their weakness: fire. Seeing as though I'm able to control fire and ice and so is my sister the ancients taught us how to fightthem off, but there was a problem: they were immortals, _we_ weren't. The ancients told my parents that there was a way for us to become immortals—Elijah refused, saying it'd bring great consequences but they didn't listen." I finished, almost unable to continue with the next part, not only because it was hard for me but also because I wasn't so sure about it myself.

"What happened then? I mean, you're here so they clearly did go through with the plan." Jacob said kind of bitterly which stung more than I thought it would.

"Clearly." I said with the same tone. Two can play a game. "A month before my eighteen birthday, on a full blue moon, the ancients sacrificed me and my sister to the god of death, Anubis, as if we were some tribute there was to pay. They took us against our will and when the moon was right above us they drove a dagger made of gold through our hearts and once they made sure we were dead, submerged us on some sort of bathtub each. Wanna know what they were filled with? Blood and it wasn't even mine!" I spat, my eyes watering and my breathing heightening.

How dared he treat me like that? Oh, look at me I'm Jacob and I just figured out I'm a freaking wolf! Pity me and understand my bitterness! Oh, yeah? What about having your own family murder you for some fucking vampires and then said family dies leaving you alone to deal with eternity on your own? That did deserve pity and yet I wasn't going around asking for it.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Bella assured me putting one hand on my shoulder.

"But I want to." I told her, taking a deep breath. "I woke up four days later. Because I had been under blood for such amount of time I couldn't breathe so I jumped gasping for air the minute I opened my eyes. In the next five months I had fought more than 300 vampires—my sister had an equal number of victims—and had been killed only twice. After a few years things got under control, until one day…"

My voice started to fade a little as I recalled what had happened that day, which was by far the worst day of my life. Jacob and Bella took a step closer, hanging to my every word.

_"My highness, there's been a message delivered from Sais." A servant said as he ran into the room that the royal family—except for the king who was in a traveling mission to the city of Memphis—was using as shelter from the heat._

_My head instantly shot up and my eyes met my sister's; we knew that the city of Sais had been having trouble with the vampires—all the empire had—and they were between death and life._

_"Tell us the message," Anaksunamun—my sister's birth name—demanded without waiting for our mother's permission, although by this time I didn't think it really mattered._

_"Sais has fallen, Karnack has fallen, Memphis has fallen, Thinis has fallen and we are the next target." The servant breathed and we all gasped._

_For the love of the great god Amun! This was worst than I expected. How could they suddenly win so much power? It didn't make sense. Thinis and Sais didn't have people like me and my sister, they were small cities, they weren't supposed to be in danger; but Karnack and Memphis? They had a great army, I had trained them myself. These people had to have some sort of help, it was impossible for them to suddenly have this much power and population._

_"Neferure, daughter, what do we do?" my mother, speaking for the first time, asked me snapping me out of my thoughts._

_My eyes slowly drifted towards my other siblings, the younger ones were playing around while the older ones were quietly talking in a corner. My family consisted of nine children: four daughters and five sons. My sister and I being the oldest and followed by one of my brothers and then came another girl and then the rest. I wasn't really sure about the birth order of the rest of my brothers and sisters, I just new the age gap between them wasn't very long._

_"Nefertiti, take my brothers and sisters away." I ordered her dead serious. My brother was about to refuse but I sent him a pointed look and he obliged._

_"Right, how bad are the damages?" I asked, dreading the answer._

_The servant looked down at his feet and back up. "irreparable." He whispered and I felt like the world was crumbling beneath me._

_"When will they be here?" I demanded, raising my voice._

_The servant opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a heart-breaking loud pierced scream that came from the main room at the begging of the palace, that scream was followed by many others._

_"I'm guessing about now. What do you think?" Anaksunamun sarcastically asked, causing me to smirk._

_"You think? No, they must be taking a break… I guess this summer." I teased making her laugh and roll her eyes._

_"Children! This is not a matter to make fun about." Our mother snapped at us._

_"Right. Take mother to a safe place. We'll deal with this."_

"Sorry—who's Neferure again? And Nefertiti is Charlotte, right?" Bella's voice brought me back to reality.

I blinked a few times until the vision had faded completely and then looked at them who had different looks. Bella look distressed and Jacob simply looked confused as hell.

"No, no. Anaksunamun is Charlotte's birth name and Nefertiti was my younger sister. As for Neferure, you're talking to her right now." I explained them, Understatement filling their faces and eyes.

"What happened then?" Jacob eagerly asked. Apparently my eventful past interested him. _Well, wait until you know who made you a dog._

"All hell broke loose. The entire city was a mess, the palace was the only building standing, bodies were scattered all over the place, we couldn't fight them all and before I knew it I was badly hurt and left unconscious. I wake up two hours later on a Jewish village with a bandaged head and a sprained wrist to learn that my dear sister had taken me out of there and had escaped. Our family left behind to die," I furiously said, my eyes watering and one betraying tear fell down my face.

I wiped it away angrily, I hated it when people saw me cry it made me feel weak and I wasn't weak.

"That was the end of the great city of Memphis, with my sister and I as the only reminder that it indeed existed." I added as I played with my moon pendant and then remained silent. I was done talking, if they wanted more information they had to ask.

I sat on the sand, not giving a damn about my clothes getting dirty anymore, and sighed.

"What happened when you left Rome? You never told me." Bella asked me, sitting beside me.

"Well, I took Charlotte away, very far away and we taught people how to fight vampires—they had started to get out of control again—and traveled the entire world." I shrug.

"If you fought vampires, why are you living with them?" Jacob suddenly asked, his bitter tone apparently forgotten as he flopped himself down on my other side.

"Carlisle changed my mind. I had come across him when he was human and thought he was a nice guy, I taught him and his father everything they knew about vampires, and suddenly one night around 1670 he appeared out of nowhere, I would've killed him if it weren't because 1) I knew him and 2) I didn't hunt vampires anymore." I explained him, hoping it'd be enough for him.

He nodded and looked out at the ocean his brows furrowed together and his eyes on a glare, he was clearly trying to take everything I had told him in. seconds turned into minutes and no one spoke, we simply sat there and looked at the orange-tinted sea.

"That's enough!" Bella groaned as she got up from the ground. "I'm tired of the tension here; you two just discovered shocking things about the other but you clearly love each other." She yelled at us, making me jump. You don't get to see this Bella very often.

Jacob opened his mouth to say something but Bella cut in. "Don't! I'm gonna leave now and I want you to fix this. You either get back together or decide to never see each other again but just talk, I can't deal with this game of yours anymore because my two best friends? The ones I've been with since I moved here? They're not the people sitting in front of Me." she finished and turned around, walking towards the parking lot. We stayed quiet for a few minutes until Jacob decided to talk.

"I have two more question for you, answer them right and we talk—answer them wrong…" his voice faded away and he looked at me right on the eye. My heart started to race, actually scared of what he would ask me.

"Have—have you killed anyone?"

"Yes. But I have a better self-control now; I learned the hard way that just because someone angers me or betrays me doesn't mean I have to kill them. Revenge is never the answer." I admitted while breaking eye contact by looking down at my hands.

He stayed silent for a few seconds before sighing and asking again:

"Why haven't you killed me? I mean, we've been really… close and you've never shown anything that would make me think you weren't human."

I frowned and tried to think of a way of answering that question without telling him that I loved him, we weren't together anymore and I had no right of telling him such things. I sighed and ran a hand through my already tangled hair, my fingers getting stuck at the end of the knots.

"I'd never hurt you—although I'm pretty sure I'd kill anyone who hurt _yo_u_." _I chuckled without humor.

"I stayed here for a reason, Jacob; I wanted to be with you, I didn't want to just leave you behind like you didn't mean anything." I pressed the matter, hoping that was a valid answer for his second question and praying to God I had answered that one correctly—I already knew I had answered the first one wrongly.

"Sam never told me why I couldn't see you; I simply thought it was because I'm not good but then you came here and you just looked at me with those pleading heart breaking eyes and I had to visit you." he started talking and I visibly relaxed, well seems like I passed the test.

I didn't know what to say so I simply stayed in silence; when in doubt, stay quiet.

"He was furious, started to say things like I couldn't be with you because you were dangerous, that you'd kill me the moment we were alone…" he added and I cringed a bit. Well, looks like Sam has my book. _Oh, well._

"I'm sorry for the way I acted," He said taking my small hand on his, my extremely white skin practically glowing next to his tanned tone.

"And I'm sorry for playing along with it." I muttered before getting up.

"Can—can we try again?" he asked as he also got up, towering above me.

I smiled before realizing something I had forgotten to tell.

"You need to know something first…"

I started before explaining how Charlotte and I had come to America a long long time ago—so long I cant even remember the year—and had taught the Quileute tribe how to fight vampires—just in case they also invaded America—and seeing as though they had magic in their blood, we taught them a little trick.

"You are responsible for me being a wolf?" he asked loudly and I nodded.

"Why—why would you do that?" he said, the bitter tone back.

I looked around trying to avoid his gaze and about to say sorry when I realized I had nothing to apologize for, I didn't know I'd meet him and I did it to protect all of them.

"It's not like I knew I'd meet you, I just wanted to protect them. That's why Sam didn't let you talk to me, not because he thought you'd hurt me but because he thinks I betrayed you by being with the Cullens. But what he doesn't realize is that this isn't my war anymore!" I explained heatedly.

I was tired of fighting, I just wanted my Jake back and it looked like I wouldn't be getting him back any time soon; at the mere thought of losing him maybe for ever my eyes started to water for the fifth time today and I looked down, trying to control the tears threatening to fall. Out of nowhere, two strong arms wrapped around me and I instantly hugged back, hiding my head on his chest when I felt him bury his face on my hair and breathe deeply.

I sniffed a little bit but he still heard me because he stepped back—his arms still around my waist—and looked at me, not an ounce of bitterness on his features and his warm brown eyes finding my own blue ones—that were shining a little bit because of my tears; sexy, yeah I know (sarcasm intended.)—to then slowly travel around my face and finally land on my lips. I got the hint immediately and stood on my tip toes a little bit but without touching his lips; he smirked at me, knowing I was teasing him and got even closer to me—if that was possible—before pressing his lips against mine, the feeling that that simple action gave me made me unconsciously smile into the kiss.

"I don't care if you're the fucking creator of vampires or something as equally bad; I'm never letting you go again." He told me, his forehead against mine and one of his hands caressing my cheek.

I giggled, yeah actually giggled before stepping out of his hold and taking his arm.

"then, let's go! I want to ask Sam to give you something!"

He laughed but ran after me anyway. "What thing?"

I turned over my shoulder to look at him and smirked. "My book." I said before letting go off his hand and starting to run toward Emily's place.

"You're boo—Antoinette, wait for me!" he yelled after me and started to run too, wrapping his arms around my waist once he reached me.

I laughed truly happy that things were back to normal again, well… as normal as it could be.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Chapter 23:**_

"You want me to what?" Sam practically barked at me but I didn't even blink.

We were sitting in Emily's kitchen table; Embry and Paul were sitting across from me and Jake was sitting next to me, Bella was leaning against the counter eating another muffin and Jared and Emily were looking at us from the background. Sam, however, was pacing back and forth while sending more than one nasty glare my way. Apparently, Jared and Embry, and then Paul, asking about me had angered him greatly.

"I want you to show them the book. I know you have it." I repeated myself for the second time and fought the urge to roll my eyes. Eye rolling wouldn't get me anywhere today, not if I wanted him to collaborate.

"I don't have any book." he shook his head.

"You're the alpha, Sam," I told him with a pointed look, letting him know that I knew that he had it. The book was passed through generation to generation to the alpha wolf of the pack or, if there was no pack, to the head of the tribe. But there was a pack and an alpha. Meaning, Sam.

"I can't, it's against the rules," He said angrily and locking his eyes with mine. He was obviously mad over the fact that I knew the whereabouts of that book.

"Ah, but you're wrong. The law establishes that you will not show the book to anyone or even acknowledge its existence, unless I allow you to. I'm giving you permission," I said, referring to the laws my sister and I had established with the Quileutes the first time we were here.

He looked at me for a minute, while every one else in the room looked at us expectantly, and then sighed. He walked down a hallway and returned around five minutes later with the book on his hands, once he was in the table again he handed it over to me.

I ran a hand through its old cover and closed my eyes, this thing was almost as old as I was; its principal purpose was pretty much unknown to me. In it was written every little piece of information there was about me and Charlotte; the first half of the book was about me and the other half about her—it was magically enhanced so all of the information can be kept in one book.—it was a way to ensure we're not completely forgotten, we gave the Quileutes the power of being able to fight back and in exchanged they promised to protect the book, something very important to us.

"Can someone explain to me why a simple book is so conflictive?" Embry asked Sam.

"It's not just a book, it's her entire life," He told them reluctantly but I was too focused on opening the book to pay attention.

"All of it? As in the whole 3000 years and everything?" Bella asked and I nodded slowly.

"Wanna find out if you're here?" I asked Jacob as I opened the cover of the book, revealing _Neferure_ in cursive golden letters.

"Am I there?" Bella asked, taking a step closer.

I shrugged, unsure, and started to pass the pages, showing a lot of pictures, drawings and drabbles about me. I had seen it so many times it was almost boring so with a flip of my wrist the pages passed to the most recent part of the book: the one that wrote my arriving at Forks.

"Sam, when did they give you this?" I asked, hesitantly.

If he's got this book all this time, then why hasn't he confronted me about it?

"Billy gave it to me around September, why?" he answered me cautiously.

"Mere curiosity." I shrugged.

Silence filled the room for minutes as Jacob started to read the book silently. Eventually, the rest of the pack took a curious look forward and started to read as well. I sat back and let them. It wasn't like I cared, and as I said before, there were no secrets in a pack. Apparently Forks got boring because they turned to the very first page of the book. I looked up, met Sam's eyes, and then I looked outside. He nodded and moved to the door, I got up and started to follow him.

"Wait, where are you going?" Jacob asked me, taking my wrist.

"Just outside, I'll be here in a few minutes." I explained. He nodded and let me go.

Sam and I walked into the woods silently; none of our footsteps were heard, even though there were multiple little twigs and dried leaves on the floor. The sounds of the woods were loud, calling me to stay with them, wanting me to let them in, and I allowed them. Birds chirped all around us, in that maple over there a bluebird's nest had two little eggs and if I focused hard enough I could hear an eagle high in the air. I looked down at the ground and took a dried Pacific Rhododendron from the ground and started to play with it, the flower slowly but surely came back to life.

"You're doing it wrong… and you know it." I stated, not looking at Sam but at the flower. All I had for an answer was silence. "I told Billy today that I was proud of you. It wasn't a lie, what I saw in the clearing made me proud but I talked to them directly. Sam, they're not exactly happy."

"I know… but that's the way it is. None of us wanted this, how can we be happy about it?" Sam said, his tone of voice calm.

I was surprised by this. I had expected bitterness from him, hatred but none of that came to surface.

"I never wished for you guys to be miserable, it hurts me." I mumbled.

"I have Emily… and Jacob has you," he replied.

I smiled but didn't say anything. It wasn't the same thing. Sam and Emily were soul mates, completely meant to be. I didn't know if it was that way with Jake and I. he claimed to love me, I knew I loved him. But he didn't imprint on me and if he hadn't, that meant he never would. That only gave me two options: either I wasn't his soul mate and he'd eventually find someone else, and that was the option that hurt me the most, or he had loved me so much before turning that the love potion number 5 had worn off on its own and he'd never imprint on anyone. If that was the case then I'd be forever grateful to Charlotte. When we were talking about them and the need to have love in their life, she decided that, seeing as though they can't age, if any of them were to fall in love with a supernatural immortal creature, the love potion should wear off so they could be together forever without the little mishap of him imprinting on someone else. That could only happen, though, if their love was true. And true love was so hard to find. Jacob was eighteen; he most likely didn't know what love was. I did.

"I can heal her, you know, if you want me to." I said.

"What?" he asked, baffled.

"Her scars, I can take them away." I explained. "You should talk it over with her, let me know what you agree on."

He kept silent and we started to walk again, this time back to the house.

"Why haven't you told him yet? That he's the rightful alpha… not you," I asked.

Sam hesitated for a moment. I saw him run a hand through his short hair, his muscles flexing at the gesture. Right when I thought he wouldn't answer, he said:

"It's been a tough week for him, us, we've been busy like crazy. The redhead keeps bothering us and he's just turned—"

"The redhead?" I interrupted, halting on my step.

"Yes, she's been running around, killing and bothering us a lot. It's almost like she enjoys it." Sam elaborated.

Around us, the beautiful environment suddenly didn't look so beautiful anymore. She was here, Victoria was here and she was tormenting the wolves. I wanted to involve myself in an entire conversation about that redheaded bitch but we were nearing the house and something else caught my eye.

Jacob was standing a few feet away from Emily's home and talking to a girl. She had her back to us so I couldn't see her face. Her hair was pitch black and cascaded down her back in soft waves; she was tall and skinny, much like I was. What I found incredibly weird was the fact that she was wearing a summer dress on this weather. That was it. No tights, no sweater, no coat, just a purple summer dress that clashed against her incredibly white skin. She and Jacob were having an apparently heated argument; she was moving her hands around a lot, the many bracelets on her hand moving and tinkling as she did so, while Jacob frowned deeply.

When Jacob spotted me, his frowned deepened even more. The girl seemed to notice his attention wasn't on her anymore because she stopped mid-sentence and turned to look at me. I gasped. It was like looking at myself in a mirror: same striking blue eyes, same nose, same red lips.

"Charlotte?" I gasped, not really believing my eyes.

My sister smiled brightly at me before opening her arms. I didn't even think about it, I took off running and hugged her. She hugged back immediately. Jacob watched confused from behind her, his eyes kept flickering between us, unbelievable. I laughed a teary laugh and broke apart from the hug.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her.

"Well, an old friend of ours made a small apparition over at home… he mentioned you were… well," my sister shrugged. "The point is, I decided to come and here I am!"

I laughed freely. "And I see you met Jake."

Charlotte turned to face Jacob with a smile. He wasn't frowning anymore but gave her a sheepish smile as he took my hand and laced our fingers together.

"Yes, I did. Quiet a catch, sister." Charlotte winked at me. "Although he has quite a temper as well, he didn't believe me."

I turned to Jake with an unbelievable look on my face. He gave me an innocent smile, one that I hadn't seen in a while and I couldn't help but smile back at him.

"What does she mean you didn't believe her? She looks just like me!" I exclaimed and both I and Charlotte started to laugh when Jake's cheeks turned slightly rosy.

"Yeah, but you said she was away—I…" Jacob fumbled.

"He thought it was you, although I've got to admit someone almost had a heart attack when I knocked on the door." Charlotte elaborated.

"We all had a heart attack!" Jacob retorted.

Sam laughed loudly behind us and we all turned. He waved at us and nodded at Charlotte before entering the small house.

"Come on, let's introduce you to everyone," I said excitedly as I took both Jacob's and Charlotte's hand and lead them toward the small house. "Hey, everybody, I want you to meet my twin sister… Charlotte!"

Five heads turned to meet us. Emily's face stretched into a big smile as the realization of who had knocked on her door was dawned on her. Sam had his arms around her and nodded at my sister as he rested his head on Emily's shoulder. Jared and Embry gave her a once over and smirked at each other.

"Nice," Jared said and Charlotte giggled.

"Hi, I'm Embry Call and this idiot is Jared," Embry said after elbowing Jared on the side.

"Nice to meet you, guys." Charlotte laughed.

"Okay, that one is Emily, he is Sam, you already know those two and grumpy over here," I paused, directing my sister's attention to Paul. "Is Paul. He has quite a temper so be careful." I added on her ear.

But she wasn't paying attention to me, she was frowning at Paul deeply. I turned to face him and my heart skipped a bit. Widened eyes, surprised expression, amazed, almost like he had seen the sun for the first time. _Oh, no._ Paul had imprinted on Charlie. How was that possible? She was my exact copy, this is weird. Besides, it wasn't like it would work. She was a queen, he was simply a member of a pack, she would never go for it. She couldn't even have children, for God's sake. Of course that didn't mean she didn't have a soul mate, we all did. And if that soul mate happened to be a very grumpy wolf, then so be it.

"It's nice to meet you all." My sister smiled, shaking her head and avoiding eye-contact with Paul.

I sent her a look but she simply shook her head at me. The message loud and clear: _Not now._

"Well, now that everyone is here… who wants breakfast?" Emily suddenly asked, snapping everyone away from the silence that had fallen upon us.

A chorus of 'me!' filled the room and I managed a small smile as I watched everyone start to eat. Emily had outdone herself. There was bacon, eggs, sausages, toasts and orange juice. I sat down next to Jacob and Bella decided to come out of her shell and speak to Charlie.

"Sam told me about the redhead." I suddenly spoke up. The room went silent immediately.

"What? You know her?" Jacob frowned at me.

"Yes," I nodded before looking at Bella over the corner of my eye. She looked scared. "Last year we killed her mate because he tried to kill Bella, she wants revenge now."

"She's coming after you?" Jacob asked, horrified by the mere idea.

"No, she's coming after Bella." I corrected.

All eyes turned to Bella at once. She squirmed under our gazes but said nothing. Charlotte met my eyes, demanding why I hadn't talked to her about this before but I sent her the same message she had given me before: _Not now. _We spent the rest of the morning talking about Victoria and how they should proceed. My sister, being the great vampire hunter she was, gave them a lot of tips I was sure they didn't know.

"Okay, let's go for a round, check the woods." Sam ordered.

Paul was the first one out, he didn't even spared anyone in the room a second look. Sam sighed and went after him while Jared and Embry followed them with their eyes and slowly got up.

"See you around girls, duty calls." Jared joked before running out of the house. Embry waved and followed.

I turned to Jacob, who hadn't moved an inch from his seat, and nodded toward the door. "Don't you have somewhere to go?" I asked him.

"Are you kicking me out?" he asked. I shook my head, a smile tugging at my lips. "Don't worry, I just have to do something first." He added, getting closer to me.

"Mhm, and what's that?" I hummed.

"This," he kissed me then, slowly and adoringly, making me melt.

I responded eagerly, putting my hands on his neck, near his pulse, enjoying the way his heartbeat quickened. Of course I didn't need to feel it to know that, I could hear it and I knew he could hear mine. I broke away from the kiss, very aware that we were being watched and gave him a peck on the cheek as he got up from the table.

"I'll see you later?" he asked, hesitant to leave.

"Yes, go now." I ushered him outside, sending him a smile.

When I turned away from the now-closed door, Emily and Charlotte were looking at me with a knowing smile, while Bella was as red as a tomato.

"What?" I asked, a little defensively.

"Nothing," they answered at the same time, sharing a smile.

"Just… you know, you're so in love with him but apart from that… nothing." Charlotte laughed and I groaned as I leaned against the door, knowing very well that I was in for a long evening full of teasing.


End file.
